The kidney graft

When a kidney has been removed from the body of a donor, it is thoroughly washed and then put into a container with special preservative fluid. Unlike other organs such as the heart, a kidney can survive like this for up to four days.

However, the longer a kidney is without its normal circulation of blood at body temperature, the greater is the risk that its filtering mechanism will become irreparably damaged, which would make the kidney useless. Ideally, a kidney from a deceased donor should be transplanted into the recipient within one day.