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Kidney transplantation

Why should you receive
organ transplantation in AMC?

Organ transplantation is an operation that replaces the affected organ of a terminally ill patient with a healthy organ of a brain-dead or a living person. Transplantation is performed on a patient who cannot be treated with conventional therapies due to intractable diseases. Transplantation of organs including the solid organs such as the kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, and lungs as well as the tissues such as the cornea, bone marrow, bones, blood vessels, cartilage, amnions, fasciae, and heart valves are possible. After the first successful kidney transplantation in 1969, transplantation of the kidney, cornea, and bone marrow has been performed. Thereafter, the first deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) in 1988 was succeeded by the pancreatic and heart transplantations in 1992 and the lung transplantation in 1996.

AMC’s Liver Transplantation Center laid the foundation stone for DDLTs in Korea and paved the way for raising awareness for brain dead organ donation and transplantation. In May 1992, the center began with the first deceased donor multi-organ transplantation. The center had received global attention as it was the first to perform living donor liver transplantation using a modified right lobe graft in 1999, a dual living donor liver transplantation in 2000, and exchange liver transplantation in 2003. Furthermore, a steady stream of overseas medical professionals from prestigious transplantation centers around the world has been visiting AMC for training.

AMC’s Liver Transplantation Center, with disregard to the number of surgeries, has strengthened its outstanding position in treatment outcomes and survival rates for each type of organ transplantation; all the meanwhile, strengthening its efforts in continuous research and experiments and advanced training programs. The center will strive to concentrate on treatment, research, and training to achieve increased survival rates and better treatment outcomes.

Treatment Method

Kidney transplantation

The kidney serves various functions including filtering waste in the blood. As kidney disease progresses, its function starts declining, leading to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). ESRD requires treatment such as hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or kidney transplantation. Kidney transplantation is the surgical method of replacing the affected kidney with a healthy one.

Kidney transplantation has been performed since the 1950s in other countries. However, in Korea it was first introduced in 1969, and was adopted by AMC in the 1990s. Since then, the number of kidney transplantations performed in AMC increased annually; and in 1996, the center recorded the highest number of kidney transplantation surgeries. In January 2012, it reached 3,000 cases and was the first in Korea to complete over 300 cases a year. AMC also performed around 400 ABO-incompatible kidney transplantations by December 2016, proving that it AMC shows continuous advancement in the field.

  • Donor

    Kidney donation may be from a living donor (immediate family member, spouse, relative, and voluntary donor) or a brain dead donor. Because the human body originally has two kidneys, donating one of them is considered safe. Donors may lead a normal life after the surgery. Kidney donation is possible in donors who are in good health and do not have hypertension, diabetes, renal disease, major bacterial infections, cancer etc. Also, kidney donors and recipients must have compatible blood types and build, while not showing adverse reactions from the HLA cross matching test. Even if the blood type is incompatible, new drugs and therapies available today allow for kidney transplantation (ABO incompatible) surgeries. Since 2009, AMC has continuously performed them successfully.

  • Transplant procedure

    Living donor transplantation

    • Recipient and Donor examinations (General Surgery or Nephrology, Pediatric Gastroenterology)
    • Check if transplant is possible and hospitalize
    • Hospitalize and perform a thorough examination (transplant cancelled if there are abnormal results)
    • Review the results and perform kidney transplantation

    Care after transplantation

    Patients will stay in the hospital for around two weeks after kidney transplantation and will have regular outpatient visits after discharge. To prevent complications of organ transplantation, all patients must take an immunosuppressant drug every day. Patients will continue taking these immunosupressant for as long as the transplanted kidney functions.

Treatment performance

AMC’s Liver Transplantation Center laid the foundation stone for DDLTs in Korea and paved the way for raising awareness for brain dead organ donation and transplantation. In May 1992, the center completed the first deceased donor multi-organ transplantation. In July 1992, the Center succeeded Korea’s first simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation. Then in August 1992, it completed the first liver transplantation and then the first heart transplantation in November. Ultimately, it took a lead in the field of deceased donor organ transplantation.

Moreover, the center performed Korea’s first living donor partial liver transplantation in 1994, the first simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation in 1999, the first adult-to-adult split-liver transplantation in 2003, the first simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation in 2005, and the first living donor simultaneous kidney-pancreas partial transplantation in 2006. It also performed the first simultaneous liver-heart transplantation in 2007, the first simultaneous seven-organ multi visceral transplantation in 2011, the first simultaneous liver-lung transplantation in 2012, and the first simultaneous liver-heart-lung transplantation in 2015. Such performance has contributed greatly to enhancing Korea’s overall medical skills and expertise in organ transplantation. Not only that but also, the center had received global attention as it was the first to perform living donor liver transplantation using a modified right lobe graft in 1999, a dual living donor liver transplantation in 2000, and exchange liver transplantation in 2003.

Thanks to recent corneal transplantation, bone marrow transplantation, and tissue transplantation, many patients have been given new hope. Every transplantation team at the center makes continuous efforts in attaining remarkable achievements. Through their efforts, achievements such as the 5,000 liver transplantations by May 2016, the 600 heart transplantations by August 2016, the 4,000 kidney transplantations by February 2015, and the 300 pancreas transplantations by July 2015 were possible.