Kidney Transplantation

Kidney transplantation is the ultimate, permanent correction for kidney failure, involving the surgical transfer of a healthy kidney from a donor into a patient whose own kidneys have failed. The donor kidney may come from a person who has been declared brain dead, or - to reduce the risk of immune rejection - from a sibling or other close, genetically similar relative who is a compatible match. Because the recipient's immune system will otherwise recognise the transplanted kidney as foreign tissue and attack it, patients are given immunosuppressive drugs a …