What are the risks of having a kidney transplant?

There are risks from any surgical procedure and some special risks related to kidney transplantation.

• Surgical complications may happen in up to 10% cases but can usually be treated so that full recovery occurs. Very rarely (about 1% cases), a patient will lose his or her life from a major complication.
• The new kidney may not work properly to start with and you may need to continue with dialysis until it picks up.
• Urine from the new kidney may fail to pass into the bladder, which is likely to necessitate another operation.
• If the new kidney fails altogether (less than 10% cases) it is likely that it would have to be removed. You would be reassessed for another transplant and go back to treatment by dialysis meanwhile.

Having weighed up all the pros and cons, the next step is to decide which pathway you are going to follow, the pathway to receive a kidney from a deceased donor or the pathway to receive a kidney from a living donor.