Written By: Satata Karmakar | Updated : March 9, 2023 9:15 AM IST
How Many Years Can a Person Live After Kidney Transplant?
A kidney transplant is considered an ideal treatment option for patients with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). According to data from the National organ and tissue transplant Organization (NOTTO), 15561 total transplants were performed in the year 2022 including 9834 living donor kidneys and 1589 deceased donor kidney transplants. But still, there is a huge gap between the requirement and availability of organs for transplantation. Today, on World Kidney Day, we will take a close look at what life looks like after kidney transplantation is successfully done, and whether one can go back to living a normal life or not. To help us understand this better, we have Dr Shyam Sunder Nowal, Consultant - Nephrology And Transplant Physician, Manipal Hospital, Jaipur, with us to help us get a clear picture of how life changes post-kidney transplantation.
Kidney transplants can dramatically improve the quality of life and health status of CKD patients. After transplant people tend to find benefits in various ways.
Transplantation offers kidney failure patients the opportunity to live a longer and more satisfying life in comparison with dialysis. For many persons, no longer attending dialysis clinics multiple days per week allowed them to have routine daily life. Many patients who were on dialysis, after receiving transplants reported increased energy and stamina, along with fewer comorbidities.
Dialysis only provides 15 % of the work that a functioning kidney does. Patients on dialysis usually have uncertainty about life and have a negative feeling of being unemployed & burden on the family. Transplantation not only provides better physical health, but is also found to be beneficial in terms of employment, education, and interpersonal relationships. The time (several hours 3 times a week at a dialysis facility) and logistical constraints of dialysis are not with the kidney transplantation. The time alone saved is about 600 h/yr being off dialysis. Successful kidney transplantation is substantially less costly as compared to maintenance dialysis.
Transplantation recipients have greater flexibility for travel, enabling them a vacation plan or business trips. There are fewer dietary restrictions than dialysis, including fluid, phosphorous, and potassium restrictions.
While most patients found transplant a better option than being on dialysis but few patients raise some concerns post renal transplant. These include the burden of post-transplant medicines, some did not experience much change after transplant, some found lesser energy post-transplant, some have concerns about health care & future quality of life, and some found themselves a burden on the family as organ receivers.
So the life of a person changes significantly after a kidney transplant. If proper psychological and vocational support is provided to patients post-transplant, they can be fruitful for society.
