Kidney

Kidney

The kidneys filter waste material from the blood and manufacture urine. They are bean-shaped and are located behind the stomach, with the right kidney slightly lower than the left to make space for the liver.

Blood pumped out of the heart is transported to the kidney to be filtered by the renal glomeruli located within the kidney tissue. When the kidneys and glomeruli are not working properly, toxins that should be excreted are reabsorbed into the bloodstream. A urine test will reveal the presence of these toxins.

The leading cause of chronic kidney failure is diabetes mellitus (Type II); the second leading cause is uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure, according to the National Kidney Foundation. More than 378,000 Americans suffer from chronic kidney failure. These people need dialysis, a procedure that mechanically cleans the blood, or a kidney transplant to survive.

The first kidney transplant was performed in 1954, and it was the first organ transplant of any kind. This year the National Kidney Foundation estimates that about 14,000 people will receive the transplants.

The kidney can remain viable for up to 36 hours outside the body.

-UNOS

But there remains a tremendous shortage of suitable organ donors. As of April 2003, 54,240 people are waiting for kidney transplants, according to Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data. In 2001, 8,140 patients received organs from deceased donors; in 2002, the number climbed to 8,497.

One answer has been living kidney donations, in which a person donates one of their two kidneys. The donor suffers few complications from living with one kidney, as the remaining organ compensates and does the work of both.

In 2002, there were 6,234 living kidney donations, up from 5,967 the year before, according to Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network data.

Survival rates for kidney transplant recipients are high, although the most common transplanted organ to fail is the kidney, in which case the recipients have to go back on dialysis, according to a UNOS spokesperson. The reason for this may be because the kidneys produce at a high rate the antibody that rejects transplanted organs, the spokesperson says.

Children up to 17 years of age have the highest survival rates one year after a kidney transplant.