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Kidney Transplant

Surgery

Before Transplant Surgery

Because it took time for Sam and his brother to complete all pre-transplant evaluations and arrange for time off from work, the transplant was not performed until May 23. Both were admitted the day prior to surgery, Charles for final testing, Sam for a dialysis treatment to get him in better condition before surgery, and both for final cross match testing. Sam had a two-hour hemodialysis with a femoral catheter the night before the transplant surgery.

Prior to transplant, Sam's lab results were as follows:

• Creatinine 16.1
• BUN 120
• Potassium 5.5
• Calcium 9.7
• Phosphorus 8.7
• Albumin 4.2
• Uric acid 7.7
• Hematocrit 32%

You can get explanations of several of the above terms and compare Sam's values with normal values.

His medications leading up to transplant were:

Cardizem® CD,
Cardura® and
Atenolol for blood pressure control;
Bicitra®

for acidosis:

Allopurinol for elevated uric acid, and
Prozac® for depression.

In terms of matching, Sam and Charles shared one of two possible A antigens, one of two possible B antigens and one of two possible DR antigens. Sam was fortunate that he had no recipient antibodies present in his blood prior to transplantation. The final cross match testing was negative prior to surgery, showing that Sam had a good chance of accepting Charles' kidney.