Kidney transplant requirements vary from program to program and country to country. Many programs place limits on age (e.g. the person must be less than 69 years old when put on the waiting list) and require that one must be in good health (aside from the kidney disease).
Significant cardiovascular disease, incurable terminal infectious diseases and cancer often are transplant exclusion criteria. In addition, candidates are typically screened to determine if they will be compliant with their medications, which is essential for survival of the transplant. People with mental illness and/or significant on-going substance abuse issues may be excluded.
HIV was at one point considered to be a complete contraindication to transplantation. There was fear that immunosuppressing someone with a depleted immune system would result in the progression of the disease. However, current research does not bear out this fear; in fact there are findings that immunosuppressive drugs and antiretrovirals may work synergistically to help both HIV viral loads/CD4 cell counts and prevent active rejection.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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