Which Organ transplant are the most successful?

Answer 1

To a certain extent that depends upon the definition of "successful" - it could be considered to be "lowest mortality rate", "longest life expectancy after surgery", "most likely to result in a functioning graft (transplanted organ)". Depending on which criteria you use, the answer will be slightly different.

Kidney transplants have the lowest mortality rate due to a combination of reasons. Primarily, when a kidney is transplanted, the recipient's original kidneys are not removed. It is simply a case of adding a third, which hopefully works. But in turn, this does mean that if the transplanted kidney does not work, the patient should not be considerably worse off than they were pre-transplant. At this stage they would go back on dialysis until another kidney was found.

Another reason for a low mortality rate for kidney transplants compared to other organ transplants is the availability of living-related donors. This means that there are more kidneys available for transplantation, which in turn means that patients are marginally "healthier" when they receive a kidney transplant, compared to transplant recipients of other organs. The healthier the patient is, the better the outcome after transplant (but of course, a completely healthy patient would not need a transplant. It's all relative.)

However, the "lifespan" of a transplanted kidney is lowerthan for other organs such as livers and hearts (and this is why the answer to your question is not clear-cut). To clarify, I mean lifespan of the transplanted organ is lower, not the lifespan of the person who received the transplant; retransplantation of a failing graft is quite commonplace. (At which point the first transplanted kidney would probably be removed and replaced by another transplanted kidney).

The reason behind a transplanted kidney's reduced lifespan is because kidneys are directly responsible for having to filter out immunosuppressives and other medication a transplant recipient has to take. These medications are necessary to ensure the short-term health of the graft but in the long run they cause some kidney damage (regardless of what organ was transplanted). But the damaging effect of the drugs (called "nephrotoxicity") is slightly magnified in kidney transplant recipients.

Next to kidneys, livers have the second lowest mortality rate of transplant. This is slightly remarkable, since there is not an (good) equivalent of "dialysis" for liver failure, meaning there is no fallback to help a patient's health to remain stable. By the time a patient is ill enough to reach the top of a waiting list for a liver or heart transplant, they are very ill indeed. And at this point it's quite extraordinary that the numbers of patients surviving the transplant surgery is as high as it is.

Answer 2

Kidney transplants tend to have the highest success rates compared to other organ transplants. This is because the kidney is a relatively simple organ to transplant and the body can function well with only one kidney. Additionally, advancements in immunosuppressive medications have improved outcomes for kidney transplant recipients.

Answer 3

pretty much all of them.

heart, liver, bone marrow, skin graphs

Answer 4

the organ working properly and not being destroyed by the body's immune system.

Answer 5

the liver