If you have a progressive chronic kidney disease, you might need to get a kidney transplant.
Medical specialists agree that a kidney transplant is the best option in order to treat kidney failure. Patients with kidney transplants generally live longer than those who are treated with a dialysis treatment.
If it is determined that you are a good candidate for surgery, a doctor will recommend that you get a kidney transplant if you have kidney failure. A good candidate should not have a major lung or heart disease or even cancer.
These major diseases significantly decrease your life span.
You need to take medications after having a kidney transplant. Immunosuppressants are the medicines you need to take.
Cyclosporine and tacrolimus are two immunosuppressants that help prevent the body from kidney rejection.
Like with other medications you would normally take, it’s very important that medications have to be taken as prescribed by the physician. These medications will help prevent kidney rejection. After the surgery, these medications will have to be taken for the rest of your life which is a major disadvantage.
Another major disadvantage of taking immunosuppressants is that they weaken your immune system. You have a very high risk of getting serioius infections.
Even with the medications that you are taking, there’s still a possibility that the body will experience kidney rejection. If your body rejects the newly transplanted kidney, you have to undergo another kidney transplant operation or go through with dialysis.
The type of donor kidney you received governs the success of the transplant.
The donor kidney has to match very closely to the genetic makeup of your body. This will provide your body with a better chance of not rejecting the new kidney.
What you need to bear in mind is that getting a kidney transplant doesn’t provide you with a guarantee that you’ll live longer than you’d have without a kidney at all. Before Medicare covered kidney transplants during the 1970s, they used to be very expensive.
If you choose to get a kidney transplant, you need to find one first and it has to match your genetic makeup. You have to get a dialysis while waiting for a donor kidney.
