Organ transplantation makes the duration of life much higher and improves the whole state of health of many people with renal, cardiac or hepatic impairment. Although the one way of treatment of people who have renal insufficiency is dialysis, the best way for such patients is to transplant somebody’s organ. With the insufficiency of the liver, heart and / or lungs transplantation is the only solution. Nowadays this kind of surgeries can be made almost in any country of the world. Some other organs, such as pancreas, small intestine also may be transplanted. Also the surgeon may transplant two organs simultaneously (Emory Transplant Center).
Kidney Transplantation
The first successful transplantation of kidney was made in 1954. After that, a significant breakthrough has been made in this field of science. Nowadays, operations on transplantation of kidney are made very often. The only thing that serves as an obstacle is the amount of available material. During one year the rate of survival is 85-90%, and the rate of death is low enough. Sometimes kidney and pancreas transplants can be made at once, and such operations have a high level of success. Kidney transplantation has a great superiority over such treatment as dialysis.
What are the benefits of kidney transplant operation?
You can save a lot of money on dialysis
You can save a lot of time on dialysis
Freedom from pain of dialysis treatment
Kidney transplantation can improve the patient's quality of life (National Kidney Foundation).
Heart and Lung Transplantation
The first-ever operation on heart transplantation was undertaken approximately in 1960s. And since then, if a person is unresponsive to another ways of treatment, this operation can serve as a solution to treat patients with a weak heart. Till the present time, heart transplants were carried out to more than 46 000 patients, and each year 3-4 thousand of such operations are held.
For patients with non-functioning lungs the replacement either of one or two lungs can be carried out. In some cases, heart and lungs transplantation can be made together.
The advantages of lung transplantation to people with cystic fibrosis consist in elimination of most of the major effects caused by the disease and the absence of pulmonary infections in the future (New Mexico Donor Services).
The main advantages of heart transplantation include:
Heart transplantation can be life-saving escape for people with severe heart diseases such as coronary artery disease and cardiomyopathy. Coronary artery disease represents narrowing of coronary artery lumen due to the hardening of sclerotic plaques. As a result, blood delivery to the heart is broken; the heart muscle is weakened by lack of nutrition. Cardiomyopathy is a violation of work of heart valves. Valve muscles weaken and cannot pump the blood.
Heart transplant operations help to restore human health by 95%. The patient gets a chance to return to a normal active life.
It is impossible to say how much time a person can live after heart transplantation, but it is clear that this operation prolongs the life of the patient. The greatest period of life after heart transplantation is 23 years (Fishbein, Marks).
Liver transplantation
For patients with severe hepatic insufficiency transplantation of a liver is a single way of treatment.
In one-year survival rate with using a liver of a living donor is 85% for patients and 76% for the transplants; with using a liver of dead donors – 86%. The death of a patient after one year happens rarely and is a consequence of recurring diseases (for example, cancer or hepatitis) rather than the post-transplant complications (Guillen, Black).
In general, the main advantage of any organ transplantation is a chance for the continuation of existence. I think everyone will agree that such a chance is worth the risk.
Bibliography
Emory Transplant Center. “Donate life month – pros & cons of organ donation”. Advancingyourhealth.1 April 2013. Web. 15 April 2016
Fishbein, Michael. Marks, Jay. “Heart transplant”. Medicinenet. 6 October 2015. Web. 15 April 2016
Guillen, Steve. Black, Martin. “Liver transplant”. Emedicinehealth. 14 August 2015. Web. 15 April 2016
National Kidney Foundation. “Kidney transplant”. Kidney. N.d. Web. 15 April 2016
New Mexico Donor Services. “Benefits of organ donation”. Donatelifenm. 1 April 2013. Web. 15 April 2016
