How Long Can You Live after a Kidney Transplant

When kidneys work inadequately, a kidney transplant will be adopted to sustain life and prolong life span. Many patients are concerned about how long they can live after the transplant. In fact, the life span varies from cases to cases.

Generally speaking, the survival rate of transplanted kidney is 98% within one year, 80% within 5 years, 56% within 10 years, 30% within 20 years and 21% within 20 years after the operation.
The survival rate of transplanted kidney is mainly attributed to the following factors:

1. Rupture of transplanted kidney
Rupture of transplanted kidney is one of major complications of kidney transplant and can cause renal failure. The acute rejection reaction is the main cause of transplanted kidney rupturing.

2. Infections
Infections mainly include lung and urinary tract infections. They can caused by weak physique, low immunity and pathological changes in other vital organs. Also, some patients may develop latent infection after kidney transplant.

3. Cardiovascular diseases
Cardiovascular diseases is very commonly seen among the patients with kidney transplant, especially those who have a long history of kidney disease and elderly. After the transplant, the patients have to use immunosuppressive drugs and hormone over time. These drugs will increase the risk of developing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Also, before the surgery, some patients may have irregular dialysis, resulting in retention of fluid and sodium and imbalance of acid-base in body.

4. Liver function failure
Liver function failure is the third major cause of failure of transplanted kidney. In some cases, the patients had hepatopathy before transplant or potential liver insufficiency. The surgery can increase the aggravation of the disease or the incidence of liver disease. In addition, the hepatopathy may be related to some medications.

5.Malignant tumor
Malignant tumor and digestive diseases are also major death cause for patients after kidney transplant. Based on some statistics, the death rate among the patients is 100 times as high as healthy people.