FSGS Comes Back After Kidney Transplant

Kidney transplant is often considered the last hope for end stage renal disease patients to rebuild their kidney functions and prolong their life expectancy. However if the underlying kidney disease of ESRD is FSGS (focal segmental glomerulous sclerosis), the recurrence of FSGS is a major concern for the patients especially for children patients that are younger than 15 years old.

The recurrent rate of FSGS after kidney transplant vary from person to person and it is about 20%-50% and there are about 15% patients will lose the transplanted kidneys due to FSGS recurrence.

It can takes years for FSGS to come back to the transplanted kidneys or FSGS can return within weeks, days or even hours after the surgery. Therefore it is very necessary to know the early signs and symptoms when FSGS comes back so as to have early and proper treatments and try the best to save the kidneys.

Signs that patients can have when FSGS relapse

Signs of recurrent FSGS are almost the same as in the first time FSGS such as swelling, fatigue, urinary changes (bubbles in urine, blood in urine, etc), high blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, etc. Some patients can even develop some new problems such as diabetes.

How to treat recurrent FSGS after kidney transplant

When the transplanted kidney fails, proper treatments should be sought or the patients will be once again put on dialysis and gradually lose this transplanted kidney.

Immunotherapy has been proved to be effective at treating recurrent FSGS after kidney transplant. Immunotherapy is a scientific system of treatment and different medicines and therapies will be adopted according to the patient’s specific illness and physical conditions.

Immunosuppressants (which are different from anti-rejection drugs) will be used to help lower high blood pressure, reduce proteinuria so as to help stabilize the illness conditions and protect residual kidney functions.

More advanced blood purification technologies will be used such as plasma exchange and immune adsorption to achieve better clearance of toxins and pathogenic factors from the blood.

Chinese medicines will be used to regulate immune disorder and immune dysfunction at the same time of repairing renal damages and improving the functions of the transplanted kidneys.