Also called: Renal transplantation
Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Kidney Transplantation
A kidney transplant is an operation that places a healthy kidney in your body. The transplanted kidney takes over the work of the two kidneys that failed, so you no longer need dialysis.
During a transplant, the surgeon places the new kidney in your lower abdomen and connects the artery and vein of the new kidney to your artery and vein. Often, the new kidney will start making urine as soon as your blood starts flowing through it. But sometimes it takes a few weeks to start working.
Many transplanted kidneys come from donors who have died. Some come from a living family member. The wait for a new kidney can be long.
If you have a transplant, you must take drugs for the rest of your life, to keep your body from rejecting the new kidney.
It sits within Kidneys and Urinary System and Transplantation and Donation.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Kidney Transplantation
2,859 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Quadroiliac Plane Block for Analgesia After Renal TransplantationKanuni Sultan Suleyman Training and Research Hospital
- A Study Evaluating Persistence of the Immune Response of the Adjuvanted Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Vaccine and the Safety and Immune Response Following Revaccination in Adults 18 Years of Age and Above Who Received Lung or Kidney TransplantGlaxoSmithKline
- GraftAssure Lowering Allograft rejeCTIon by Combination- (GALACTIC) TrialInsight Molecular Diagnostics
- Promoting Increases in Living Donation Via Tele-navigation (PILOT)University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Staged Kidney Transplantation During Combined Heart/Kidney TransplantationCedars-Sinai Medical Center
- The Impact of Intraoperative Diuretic Use on Delayed Graft Function Following Deceased Donor Renal TransplantationLondon Health Sciences Centre Research Institute OR Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's
Research already completed
- Cyclosporine A Pretreatment and Kidney Graft FunctionUniversity Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand
- Prevalence of Hepatitis E During Follow-up Liver and Kidney Transplant Patients in Guadeloupe, French West IndiesCentre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Guadeloupe
- Proportion of CMV Seropositive Kidney Transplant Recipients Who Will Develop a CMV Infection When Treated With an Immunosuppressive Regimen Including Everolimus and Reduced Dose of Cyclosporine Versus an Immunosuppressive Regimen With Mycophenolic Acid and Standard Dose of Cyclosporine AUniversity Hospital, Bordeaux
- Belatacept Early Steroid Withdrawal TrialUniversity of Cincinnati
- Daratumumab and Belatacept for DesensitizationNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- Safety and Efficacy of Tegoprubart in Patients Undergoing Kidney TransplantationEledon Pharmaceuticals
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Kidney TransplantNational Kidney Foundation
- Kidney TransplantNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- Kidney TransplantMayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Treatments and Therapies
- Immunosuppressants (Anti-rejection Medicines)National Kidney Foundation
Living With
- Diet after kidney transplantNational Kidney Foundation
- Transplants for AllNational Kidney Foundation
Related Issues
- If You Have Kidney Disease, You Need to Get a Flu Shot This FallNational Kidney Foundation
- Solitary or Single-Functioning KidneyNational Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
- Travel Tips: A Guide for Kidney PatientsNational Kidney Foundation
- Vaccines for Adults with Chronic Kidney DiseaseNational Kidney Foundation
Statistics and Research
- OPTN/SRTR Annual Data ReportScientific Registry of Transplant Recipients
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Kidney TransplantationNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Kidney Transplantation. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Kidney Transplantation, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.