Kidney Transplant Lift Expectancy

Kidney transplant is a relatively ideal treatment for end stage renal failure. It can help patients get rid of dialysis, recover kidney functions and further prolong the life expectancy than those that are on dialysis.

The major concerns after kidney transplant are organ-rejection, survival rate and life expectancy. To help patients receive the newly settled kidneys, anti-rejection drugs must be taken. These drugs will further suppress and weaken their immune system and make patients more susceptible to infections and other illness conditions. All these will affect the survival rate and life span of kidney transplant.

The survival rate of kidney transplant will become lower and lower along with time. Survival rate means there are still kidney functions, that is to say the life span of the transplanted kidneys. The life expectancy of kidney transplant patients is much longer than that of the kidneys. When the transplanted kidneys are failed again, patients can still live for many years by turning back to dialysis and waiting for another transplant or receive other effective treatments.

Since it is not rare that the transplanted kidneys will stop work, it is necessary to know the factors that can affect the survival rate and life expectancy of kidney transplant so as to have early prevention and timely measures to try to extend the patient’s life. It has been reported that someone had lived more than 35 years after receiving kidney transplant.

High blood pressure. Long term high blood pressure can damage glomerular basement membrane and cause glomerular sclerosis. High blood pressure is a major risk factor that can affect the survival rate of kidney transplant.

High blood lipid. High blood lipid can increase the incidence of cardiovascular diseases which often threaten the patient’s life. After kidney transplant, patients often gain a lot of body weight which is not good for their kidney health and heart health, therefore it is very important to develop good life habits and have some regular exercises to control blood lipid level and body weight.

Infections. Anti-rejection drugs will further weaken the patient’s immunity and patients are easy to get various infections which often affect the life quality and life expectancy of the patients, therefore it is very important to have effective prevention and treatments.

Since the matching of the patient and donor counts a lot in determining the life span of the transplanted kidneys, it is very important to find a matching donor to reduce organ rejection and improve the successful rate and survival rate of surgery.