Kidney transplants
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Last reviewed: July 2016
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Found 438 results
Kidney Transplant - A Treatment Option
When kidney failure becomes very advanced, your kidneys are so damaged they can no longer do their job.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Haemodialysis — A Treatment Option
Dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed when your kidneys have stopped working. A sudden drop in kidney function is called acute kidney failure.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Home Haemodialysis - A Treatment Option
Dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed when your kidneys have stopped working.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Deciding to be a Live Kidney Donor
A kidney transplant can help to improve the lives of people with kidney failure and offers them better health outcomes. They can have a more active life, free from dialysis and dietary restrictions.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Newly diagnosed | Kidney Health Australia
There are many different causes of kidney disease. This means that everyones kidney disease journey is different. Some people require specific treatment such as dialysis or a kidney transplant fairly quickly but many never get to that stage.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Kidney Failure Treatment Options Making the Right Choice
You have been given this introductory booklet because you have been diagnosed with kidney failure and will need dialysis or a kidney transplant at some time in the future. For most people, this is a diffi cult time and there are many emotional and practical issues to deal with. You are probably very worried about the future. However, many thousands of people all over the world, live very active and fulfilling lives in spite of their kidney failure.
Read more on ACI - Agency for Clinical Innovation website
Kidneys - dialysis and transplant - Better Health Channel
People with kidney failure need dialysis or a transplant to stay alive.
Read more on Better Health Channel website
Live Kidney Donation
‘Live donation’, ‘living‐related transplantation’ or ‘live donor nephrectomy’ are terms used to describe the process where a living person donates one of their kidneys for transplantation to another person. The donor is the person giving the kidney and the recipient is the person getting the kidney.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation
Organ and tissue donation is a life-saving and life-transforming medical process where organs and/ or tissues are removed from a donor and transplanted into someone who is very ill or dying from organ failure.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Non-Dialysis Supportive Care: A Treatment Option
Non‐dialysis supportive care is the treatment choice for kidney failure when an individual has decided that the options of dialysis and transplant are not appropriate for them.
Read more on Kidney Health Australia website
Found 69 results
Belatacept for kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
Kidney transplants can improve the quality and length of life for patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) compared with chronic dialysis. To prevent a kidney transplant from being rejected by the body, immune-system suppressing drugs (most commonly a calcineurin inhibitors (CNI)) are used. CNI are associated with high blood pressure, high lipid levels, an increased risk of developing diabetes, and chronic scarring of the kidney transplant. Chronic kidney scarring is the main reason that kidney transplants lose function in people who do not die before their kidney transplant fails. Belatacept might be an alternative immune-system suppressing drug which prevents rejection but which also causes fewer side-effects than CNI.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Steroid avoidance or withdrawal for kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Tacrolimus is superior to cyclosporin in improving graft survival and preventing acute rejection after kidney transplantation, but increases post-transplant diabetes and other side effects | Cochrane
Tacrolimus is superior to cyclosporin in improving graft survival and preventing acute rejection after kidney transplantation, but increases post-transplant diabetes and other side effects
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Mycophenolic acid versus azathioprine as primary immunosuppression for kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
After kidney transplantation, patients receive a combination of immunosuppressive medications to prevent rejection of the transplanted kidney. These regimens usually contain a calcineurin-inhibitor (tacrolimus or cyclosporin A), corticosteroids and an antiproliferative agent (mycophenolic acid (MPA), e.g. mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), or azathioprine (AZA)). MPA is considered to be of stronger immunosuppressive potency than AZA, but the benefits on survival of the graft and its safe use over a long period of time are insufficiently understood.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Interleukin 2 receptor antagonists (IL2Ra) reduce the risk of acute rejection episodes at six and twelve months after kidney transplantation | Cochrane
Interleukin 2 receptor antagonists (IL2Ra) reduce the risk of acute rejection episodes at six and twelve months after kidney transplantation
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Interventions for lowering plasma homocysteine levels in kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
People with high homocysteine levels have higher rates of cardiovascular disease than those with homocysteine levels within the normal range. Kidney transplant recipients have proportionately more cardiovascular disease events than the general population. The aim of this review was to determine if homocysteine lowering therapies effectively reduce cardiovascular event rates in kidney transplant recipients. A single study was identified that randomised 4110 adult participants with a functioning kidney transplant to homocysteine lowering with folic acid and high dose multivitamins or to low dose multivitamins and followed them for an average of four years. Despite effectively lowering homocysteine levels, there was no evidence of benefit for any of a range of cardiovascular events. Similarly there was no evidence of harm.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Cordyceps sinensis (a traditional Chinese medicine) for kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
Kidney transplant recipients need to take several immunosuppressive drugs following surgery to prevent rejection. However, these drugs can cause side effects which compromise long-term survival for both patients and grafted kidneys.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
HMG CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) for kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
Kidney transplant patients experience heart disease more often than the general population. Statins have been shown to decrease cholesterol, heart attacks, strokes and deaths for the general population. The aim of this review was to find out whether statins prevent death and complications from heart disease in people who have had a kidney transplant. We included 17 studies in 3282 adults with a functioning kidney transplant which compared statin therapy to a placebo or standard treatment. Based largely on information from a single, large and well-conducted study, statins may reduce complications from heart disease although information from the available research is imprecise. The effects of statin treatment on death overall, stroke, kidney function and side-effects are uncertain in people with a kidney transplant. Large additional studies of statin therapy may improve our confidence that statin treatment can safely prevent serious complications from heart disease for people who have a kidney transplant.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Interventions for preventing bone disease in kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
Recipients of a kidney transplants have a pre-existing increase in bone fragility resulting from kidney disease. Bone mineral density decreases rapidly in the first year after engraftment and there is continued bone loss through the period of transplantation. The incidence of fracture following successful transplantation is greater than 2% per annum. Bone loss and fracture risk are significantly higher than both the general and dialysis population. This study examines the benefits and risks of treatments used to reduce bone disease following kidney transplantation. Twenty-four trials (12,99 patients) were included. No individual intervention (bisphosphonate, vitamin D sterol or calcitonin) has been shown in randomised controlled trials to reduce fracture risk after kidney transplantation. Meta analysis of all available such trials combined, however, shows that any intervention (bisphosphonate, vitamin D sterol, or calcitonin) for bone disease in kidney transplant recipients does reduce the risk of fracture in this population. These agents also provide a significant improvement in bone mineral density when given after transplantation, although the clinical significance of this is uncertain due to the lack of validation in bone densitometry in chronic kidney disease. Bisphosphonates have greater efficacy to preserve bone mineral density than vitamin D sterols in head-to-head trials.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Steroid avoidance or withdrawal for pancreas and pancreas with kidney transplant recipients | Cochrane
People with type 1 diabetes and kidney failure have a poor survival. In the clinical course, they suffer from several diabetic vascular complications and usually have progressive kidney impairment. Pancreas transplantation improves survival and quality of life and controls blood glucose without the need for insulin therapy, making pancreas with kidney transplantation the treatment of choice in most patients with type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes and kidney failure. More than 95% of transplant recipients are treated with steroids as part of their immunosuppression. Steroid treatment has complications including: hypertension, hyperglycaemia or hyperlipidaemia, increase risk of infection, obesity, cataracts, muscle disease, bone metabolism alterations and skin problems. However, without adequate immunosuppression, transplant patients are at risk of transplant rejection and transplant failure. This review looked at two strategies - steroid avoidance and steroid withdrawal - to investigate their impact on short- and long-term outcomes. These strategies could be used in adults in the first few days after transplantation when used in combination with more powerful immunosuppressive agents. Twenty-one studies were identified and evaluated in this review although only three RCTs enrolling 144 participants met our inclusion criteria. Steroid avoidance and steroid withdrawal strategies in pancreas and pancreas with kidney transplantation were not apparently associated with increased mortality, graft loss or acute rejection, although more studies are needed.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
