- Doctors & Departments
- Conditions & Advice
- Your Visit
- Research & Innovation
When a child is diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease, it means that the kidneys have stopped working and waste is no longer being removed from the blood. This can make a child sick. Your child’s doctor may refer to this as kidney failure. Once the kidneys stop working, a transplant may be your child’s best treatment option.
A kidney transplant is an alternative to dialysis treatment, which removes waste from your child’s blood. Only one kidney is needed to efficiently clean the blood and replace two failing kidneys.
At the right time, a nephrologist (kidney specialist) will refer your child for a transplant evaluation. The evaluation includes:
Once your child is evaluated and approved, they are placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) transplant list. There are two options for pediatric kidney transplants, live organ donation and deceased organ donation.
Any adult can donate a kidney to a child in need if their blood type matches the intended recipient and if they “pass” the donor evaluation. This can be a parent or other family member (living-related donor), a friend, or even a stranger (living un-related donor). A donated kidney does not necessarily require identical blood types between donor and recipient, but certain compatibility criteria needs to be fulfilled to be approved as a match.
Live donor kidney transplants have advantages over deceased donors, including a shorter wait time for an organ, easier and more convenient planning and scheduling of the transplant surgery, a potential for a better genetic match than a deceased donor, and better long-term outcomes.
Kidneys from living donors tend to work better and longer than kidneys from deceased donors, but a kidney transplant from a deceased donor is still a better option than long-term dialysis. A living kidney donation is not entirely risk-free and comes with some hardships for the donor, such as time off work. Living kidney donation also means that the donor, purely out of the goodness of their heart, undergoes a surgical procedure that they don’t need for their own physical well-being. Get more information about live kidney donation.
At Children’s Colorado, we have a multidisciplinary team of transplant surgeons, nephrologists, transplant coordinators, social workers, dietitians, pharmacists, psychologists and pediatric urologists who work together to treat children who need a kidney transplant.
A transplant coordinator is a family’s main point of contact for scheduling multiple specialists, answering questions about what happens next and, most importantly, helping to simplify a complex journey.
Before the operation, families meet with a pediatric anesthesiologist who explains the sleep-like state of anesthesia. You are able to ask questions, and ease any concerns that you have about pain management during and after surgery.
Also, Children’s Colorado offers pre-surgery tours to help your family prepare for surgery. If your child is too young, we also have a pre-surgery video to share or helpful tips about how to talk to your child and their siblings about surgery. And, to put your mind at ease, read through 10 ways to help you choose the best hospital for your child’s surgery.
During the evaluation, a transplant surgeon explains the details of the transplant specific to your child. Below is a basic description of a kidney transplant.
On average, it takes about three hours.
The first day after a child receives a new kidney , they stay in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for monitoring. Then, they move to a regular room for an additional four to six days. Your child’s new kidney typically starts to filter blood and produce urine almost right away. The care team at the hospital will monitor for infections, complications and overall well-being.
When your child wakes up, he or she may have a few tubes, called catheters, connected to his/her body, including:
While in the hospital, a pediatric nephrologist monitors blood pressure and anti-rejection medication to find the right balance.
The transplant team will discharge you from the hospital once the bladder catheter and the central venous catheter are removed. They will also make sure your child is healing well, eating and having normal bowel function.
After, your child will continue to see a pediatric nephrologist twice a week for the first few weeks, who manages anti-rejection medicine and additional medical care. Your child will take medications to reduce the risk of infection, complications and to stop his or her body from attacking the new kidney(s).
Within four to six weeks, kids should be fully recovered and back to normal, age-appropriate activities. Our goal is to get your child back to a regular quality of life and not be limited by a transplant – this means kids can go to school, play sports and eat a normal diet.
Because transplanted kidneys have a finite life-span, some patients may need another kidney transplant later in life. Your child’s nephrologist will help you care for your child’s health and make sure the donor kidney lasts as long as possible.