Nine reasons that can lead to kidney transplant failure

Everyone talks about the success rates of kidney transplants. Rarely people talk about what happens when transplants fail. Rejection occurs most often in the first six months after transplant. The chance of rejecting your new kidney decreases with time, but rejection can occur at any time after transplant.

When such situations happen, there are a lot of reactions that people have when their transplanted kidney fails. There are many reasons why a kidney transplant can fail:

Clot

This is usually when the blood vessels to the transplanted kidney clot, so the kidney has no blood flow. This seems most likely to happen shortly after the surgery.

Fluid Collection

If there is fluid collection around the kidney, there can be damage to the kidney from the pressure if it is not treated.

Infection

Having an infection in the kidney can cause permanent problems with the kidney, especially if it is not found and treated early.

Side Effect of Medicines

Some medicines can be harmful to kidneys.

Donor Kidney Problems

Transplant surgeons will only offer you a kidney that they believe will work, but sometimes there are problems with the donor kidney that are not expected and the kidney never works well. If the kidney never works well, it is not likely to last long.

Non Adherence

Some people stop taking their anti-rejection medicines or miss doses. The anti-rejection medicine prevents your body from recognizing the kidney as a “foreign object.” Without enough of the medicine in your blood, your body “sees” the kidney and begins to attack it.

Recurrent Disease

Although it is not very common, it is possible for the disease that damaged your original kidneys to come back and damage the transplanted kidney.

Acute Rejection

The type of acute rejection that happens right after the transplant surgery is pretty rare now, but this can happen at any time.

Chronic Rejection

This is the most common reason that kidney transplants fail. It is the long term damage done by the body’s immune system for a lot of different reasons.

Source: https://columbiasurgery.org/