Successful kidney Transplant

(The visibility of man )

• Kidney transplantation means replacement of the failed kidneys with a working kidney from another person, called a donor. Kidney transplantation is not a complete cure, although many people who receive a kidney transplant are able to live much as they did before their kidneys failed. People who receive a transplant must take medication and be monitored by a physician who specializes in kidney disease (nephrologist) for the rest of their lives.

The National Kidney Foundation estimates that about 350,000 people in the United States have end-stage renal disease and about 67,000 people die of kidney failure every year.

• In the year 2000, nearly 47,000 people in the United States were waiting for a kidney transplant.
  
  
• Because of a shortage of donor kidneys, each year only a small percentage of people who need a transplant actually receive a kidney. The wait for a donor kidney can take years. 

How the kidneys work The kidneys have several important functions in the body.

• They filter wastes from your bloodstream and maintain the balance of electrolytes in your body.
  
  
• They remove chemical and drug by-products and toxins from your blood.
  
  
• They eliminate these substances and excess water as urine.
  
  
• They secrete hormones that regulate the absorption of calcium from your food (and thus bone strength), the production of red blood cells (thus preventing anemia), and the amount of fluid in your circulatory system (and thus blood pressure).

When blood enters the kidneys, it is first filtered through structures called glomeruliTf. The second step is filtering through a series of tubules called nephrons. 

• The tubules both remove unwanted substances and reabsorb useful substances back into the blood.
  
  
• Each of your kidneys contains several million nephrons, which cannot be restored if they are damaged.