Transplant Success Rate / Rejection Rate

[trollking]

I see a lot of people on her who have had undergone kidney transplants but then read about rejection after a few days / weeks / months. Some having more than one transplant.
To clarify, even if you have a good match regarding bloods etc then what is the probability that the kidney will reject? Is the chance high / low ? What factors does it depend on?
Out of 100% how many people live a normal life after a transplant (apart from medication in tablet form etc).
Any advice appreciated.

[Tibbs]

The number I read was 20% suffer rejection in the first year. I'll try to dig up the reference later.

I think the chance of rejection depends on your own immune system, and the match you have with your donor. I had a good match with my donor and still got rejection because my immune system is quite aggressive.

[Aileen]

I didn't realise that it was as high as 20%.

I had a live unrelated transplant in Feb 2009. This was not a particularly good match (2/6 or a 112 mismatch) I have had no rejection episodes and have worked full time since recovery in a challenging role. My meds are, 1mg pred daily, 2.5 tacro daily, and the usual myfortic. I am almost weaned off pred (second attempt!) Creatinine currently and generally in the low 70s, although there was a blip when we moved from middle England to Scotland at the hind end of 2012(the stress of it all!)

I eat healthily, enjoy a glass of wine or two, and ensure I stay just slightly below the optimum weight so I don't put unnecessary strain on vital organs. The rest is in the lap of the gods.

Trollking, if there is such a thing as a normal life, then I live it! I think Tibbs illustrates the point that a good match does not always guarantee an easy passage post transplant.

best to all, wherever you are on your journey.
A.

[MandyV]

Hi Trollking - there are two types of rejection, acute and chronic. Both are generally treatable and don't necessarily lead to the complete loss of function, though chronic rejection may just be delaying it. Obviously sometimes treatment doesn't save the tx.

Tibbs' figures do not equate to the loss of tx within one year, just rejection episodes as both cadaveric and live donation tx survival
in some centres, like west London, is in the high 90%'s for tx's surviving year 1.

Rejection is not the only reason why you can lose your tx, immediately post tx the kidney may not work at all (primary non function) or there may be other complications such as bleeding/clotting etc; but the high 90's number quoted above is inclusive of all of that.

[Tibbs]

Also bear in mind that, as Amanda said, rejection is not a binary thing. You don't just get rejection and that's it, game over for your transplanted kidney.

The 20% number I saw was for episodes of early rejection. Now that doesn't mean that the kidney failed, just that some extra treatment was needed after the original operation. For me it was upping my anti-rejection drugs and having some Plasma Exchange. I'm counted as having had a reection episode even though it didn't lead to loss of the kidney.

[Thumps]

Survival rates following transplantation from the UK Transplant report.

As Tibbs said - episodes of rejection don't mean the kidney stops working and they can often be fixed and continue working for many years

[trollking]

Thanks for the responses guys.