The process of placing a donor kidney into a patient.
The grafting of a kidney from a living donor or from a cadaver to an individual with renal failure. It is used as the definitive form of renal replacement for patients with kidney failure. Tissue typing for HLA antigens as well as ABO blood groups is used to decrease the likelihood of acute or chronic rejection. Family members are often the best-matched donors. In patients with diabetes mellitus, combined renal and pancreatic transplants are sometimes performed, with a very high likelihood of success. The high success rate of kidney transplants (85% to 95% at 2 years) is primarily due to immunosuppressive drugs such as corticosteroids, cyclosporine, mycophenolate, and tacrolimus. Because cyclosporine is nephrotoxic, careful monitoring of serum drug levels after transplantation is required.