Case reports from the Harvard Ethics Consortium.

Dialysis and transplantation bring new hope and life to thousands of patients with end-stage renal disease. Renal transplantation restores reasonably normal health to patients whose kidneys no longer function and frees them from the limitations imposed by dialysis. Improved graft survival rates have further enhanced the desirability of transplantation. Currently in the United States, more than 80,000 people are living with a functioning renal transplant. The introduction of laparoscopic and laparoscopy-assisted techniques has proven to be a major improvement to living donation. This less invasive method of donating a kidney has more than doubled the chance that a patient with kidney failure will receive a transplant from a friend or loved one. New immunosuppressant medications, improved success rates, and the proliferation of transplantation centers have made renal transplantation a viable choice for many patients. The future will be dependent upon a marked increase in organ donation, which in turn will bring about earlier transplantation for patients with end-stage organ failure.

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