Nierentransplantation heute – aktueller Stand und Entwicklungen

Renal transplantation is the oldest established organ transplantation technique and internationally the most widely used transplantation treatment. Renal transplantation not only replaces the insufficient renal excretory function and enables independence from chronic dialysis treatment but also reestablishes all other renal functions. Successful renal transplantation thus leads to a remarkable improvement in general health and quality of life. The lack of suitable donor organs has led to an increase in the numbers of living donor renal transplantations; however, for the majority of recipients cadaveric donation remains the standard treatment. Therapeutic immunosuppression remains a lifelong necessity for transplant recipients and this leads to inevitable problems with side-effects and patient compliance.