ABSTRACT
Fig. 1.1. The End stage renal disease (ESRD) timeline as it pertains to renal transplantation. Patients with renal disease develop decreased renal function (1) and are followed by their primary physicians and later usually by a nephrologist. As serum creatinine rises to 4-5 mg/dl in diabetics (GFR 15-20 ml/min) or 7-8 mg/dl in patients with no comorbidity (GFR 10-15 ml/min) permanent vascular access or peritoneal catheter is placed in anticipation of hemodialysis or continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) (2). Patients may remain on hemodialysis for life or be evaluated for transplantation and placed on UNOS wait list (3). The transplant procedure involves donor maintenance and organ excision (4), recipient surgery (5), a short 5-10 day hospital stay (6), followed by close outpatient follow-up for 3-6 months (7), before reverting to their referring physician (89). At any time patients may lose the organ to rejection or technical problems and revert to dialysis treatment.
