Relative living donor kidney transplantation, ideal for uremic patients

  Uremia is a common disease that severely damages human health, and if not treated effectively, patients will die of systemic failure in a short period of time. Currently, the main treatments for UTI include artificial kidney (hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis) and kidney transplantation. Kidney transplantation is currently recognized as the best option for the treatment of the disease. With the improvement of family economic situation and people’s health care level, more and more uremic patients are asking for kidney transplantation, but due to various restrictions such as kidney source, China can only complete more than 1000 cases of cadaveric kidney donor kidney transplantation every year, which means that only about 1% of patients can finally be transplanted, and some patients even have to wait for more than two or three years for a suitable kidney source.  Living donor kidneys from relatives are very common in foreign countries, and many successful experiences have been accumulated, and the overall survival rate is significantly better than that of cadaveric kidney transplantation. In China, due to the influence of traditional thinking, cultural level and economic status, as well as insufficient education and publicity, there is a lack of understanding of kidney donation by relatives, so this treatment is not yet commonly carried out in China. Parents, brothers, sisters and spouses of the recipient can be candidate donors, generally between the ages of 18-60 and in good health. Each person has two kidneys, one of which is normally sufficient to sustain life. When a relative suffers from uremia, it is no less than a rebirth for the patient to extend his or her helping hand and great love, so that his or her organ can live on in the relative and life can continue. It has been proven that healthy kidney donors have no significant impact on their own life and health after donating a kidney, and they can recover and be discharged from the hospital and return to work soon after the operation. For the recipient, due to the congenital “compatibility” of kinship, the kidney function can generally return to normal in 1-3 days after receiving the organ, the rejection reaction is mild, the kidney function recovers quickly, the amount of anti-rejection medication is relatively small, and the medication can be gradually stopped according to the specific situation, which economically reduces the burden on the family and society. In addition, the adverse drug reactions are light, the damage to liver and kidney function is small, and the recent and long-term effects are significantly better than those of cadaveric kidney transplantation. Recently, we have performed more than 100 cases of living donor kidney transplantation from relatives, with satisfactory results. If relatives can provide a kidney source, allowing patients to have a kidney transplant in a timely manner, it can save the cost of dialysis while waiting for a donor kidney. Therefore, in the current situation where there is a general shortage of kidney donor sources, kidney donations from relatives should be actively promoted. Experts believe that kidney transplantation by relatives has no significant impact on the health of the donor, and the recipient recovers quickly after surgery with few side effects, which is an ideal choice for the treatment of uremia.