Transplantation

Abstract

There are two forms of treatment for chronic renal failure — dialysis and kidney transplantation. No individual is committed indefinitely to one or other form of treatment. Every renal unit has a flexible policy which offers to each patient treatment best suited to the stage reached in his illness. Every person who wishes to have a transplant will need dialysis to keep him alive until a suitable kidney becomes available. If, at some time after transplantation, the new kidney fails, the patient then goes back to haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. There are some people who have received three or four transplant kidneys. A patient may never wish to receive a transplant kidney. For him the best treatment would be home haemodialysis or CAPD.