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Kidney transplant surgery
Category: Kidney & Dialysis Procedures · All kidney & dialysis procedures
What it is
Kidney transplantation places a healthy kidney from a living or deceased donor into a person with kidney failure. The new kidney is usually placed in the front of the pelvis (not where the natural kidneys sit) and connected to the leg blood vessels and the bladder.
Why it is done
It is the treatment of choice for suitable people with kidney failure, offering better quality of life and survival than long-term dialysis for those fit enough, subject to donor availability and transplant assessment.
How to prepare
Assessment is thorough: heart and circulation checks, cancer screening, infection screening, tissue typing and antibody testing, vaccinations, and psychological and social assessment. Living donors undergo their own independent assessment. You join the waiting list or schedule living-donor surgery, and must be contactable at all times once listed.
What happens during the procedure
Under general anaesthetic, the donor kidney is placed through a cut in the lower abdomen/pelvis, its artery and vein joined to your vessels and its urine tube (ureter) joined to the bladder, often with a small temporary stent. Surgery takes about two to four hours. The kidney often works immediately (living donor) or after a delay of days (deceased donor), during which dialysis may continue.
Afterwards — recovery & results
You stay in hospital for several days with close monitoring of urine output, blood tests and drug levels. Lifelong immunosuppressant medicines prevent rejection; you will have frequent clinic visits at first, settling to regular lifelong follow-up. The ureteric stent is removed at a few weeks with a small telescope procedure.
Risks & considerations
Risks include rejection (monitored and usually treatable when caught early), infection made more likely by immunosuppression, side effects of the medicines (including higher long-term risks of some cancers and diabetes), bleeding, urine leaks, and clotting or narrowing of the connections. Your transplant team discusses your individual assessment results and risks in detail.
Watch: Kidney transplant surgery videos
Real procedure videos from the MedicalVideos.com library. Some clinical footage is graphic — that is the nature of a medical video library.
Related guides on MedicalVideos.com
Frequently asked questions
Do my own kidneys come out?
Usually not — they are left in place unless there is a specific reason to remove them (such as very large polycystic kidneys or repeated infections).
How long will a transplant last?
It varies widely — many transplants work for well over a decade, living-donor kidneys generally longest. Lifelong follow-up and taking immunosuppression exactly as prescribed are the biggest controllable factors.
Related procedures — Kidney & Dialysis Procedures
Browse the K section of the A–Z list or return to the Procedures & Tests hub.