Kidney transplant
A surgical procedure using a donor kidney to treat kidney failure.
Transplantation is a preferred treatment over dialysis because of its improved outcomes.
The principal problems in kidney transplantation are immunologic, i.e. avoiding rejection of the transplanted kidney by the recipient’s immune system.
The first kidney transplant was done in Boston by surgeon Joseph E. Murray in 1954. (This was the first successful human organ transplant.) Murray removed a kidney from Ronald Herrick and transplanted it to his identical twin, Richard Herrick (and thereby skirted the immunologic problems). In 1990, Murray shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with E. Donnall Thomas “for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.”
Read Also:
- Kikuchi disease
A disorder that typically causes “swollen glands” in the neck (cervical lymphadenopathy) together with fever or flu-like symptoms. Laboratory test abnormalities include elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and white blood count abnormalities (low neutrophil count and elevated lymphocyte count with atypical lymphocytes in the peripheral blood). Kikuchi disease is fairly common in young people, predominantly […]
- Kilobase
A unit of length of DNA that is equal to 1,000 nucleotide bases. Abbreviated Kb.
- Kilocalorie
The term used to represent the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a liter of water one degree centigrade at sea level. In nutrition terms, the word calorie is commonly used to refer to a unit of food energy. (The word calorie is used instead of the more precise scientific term kilocalorie.) […]
- Kimmelstiel-Wilson disease
Diabetic kidney disease affects about one half of patients with long-standing diabetes. It affects the glomerulus, a key structure in the kidney that is composed of capillary vessels necessary for the filtration of the blood. A cardinal feature is the excessive filtration of albumin into the urine (albuminuria). Patients may also have high blood pressure […]
- Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome
Diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease). Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome is a kidney condition associated with long-standing diabetes. It affects the network of tiny blood vessels (the microvasculature) in the glomerulus, a key structure in the kidney that is composed of capillary blood vessels and which is critically necessary for the filtration of the blood. Features of Kimmelstiel-Wilson syndrome […]