A kidney transplant is considered to be the best treatment for kidney disease, and it provides patients the greatest ability to live a normal life.

Kidney transplantation is not suitable for everyone, and patients need to meet numerous eligibility criteria (such as being healthy enough to handle the surgery, and post-transplant requirements, having good blood circulation, and being a healthy weight) to even be put on the kidney transplant waiting list. Once placed on the kidney transplant waiting list, patients have to wait until a kidney that is a match becomes available. Prior to transplantation, thorough evaluations and tests will be performed to ensure that the transplant recipient and the transplant donor are a match and are compatible. Although we have two kidneys, we only need one transplant kidney to be able to live without dialysis when our kidneys do not function.

Kidney transplants can occur either through living donation or deceased donation.