Frequently Asked
Questions

Chronic kidney failure can occur for a variety of reasons. For this reason, the patient should first undergo a very detailed examination and his medical history should be investigated. At this point, the treatments received by the patient, the diagnoses made, the history of surgery and other examination information are evaluated. It is very important how long the patients on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis treatment receive these treatments. Apart from this, the heart, vascular system and diabetes play a significant role in this regard. If problems in the heart and vascular system are detected in the detailed research, the treatment of these problems is started first. If a problem is not detected, other systems are also subjected to a detailed investigation. As a result of these investigations, it is determined whether the patient is suitable for the transplant process. Other areas where the patient is evaluated are: Nephrology, transplant surgery, cardiology, obstetrics, anesthesiology; when necessary, the patient and donor are also evaluated with pulmonology, psychiatry, urology and other specific consultations.

If the patient has a living donor but there is a blood or tissue – cross match incompatibility, kidney transplantation is performed by matching donor and recipient couples with similar problems. In case of swapping donors, cross-transplantation can be resorted to if the tests are compatible.

In kidney transplants, living donation offers twice as longer success rate compared to deceased donation. The reasons for better outcome are: better planning before the surgery, detailed immunologic screening before transplantation, the chance for paired donation, and having better tissue and blood group match.

The person whose organs are to be donated must be brain dead. People with brain death do not have recovery options. However, people in a vegetative state or coma have a chance to return to life. For this reason, organs are not taken from people in a vegetative state. Today there is a definite diagnosis to be sure for differential diagnosis, so brain death cannot be mixed with vegetative state for sure.

According to the common data revealed by numerous scientific studies carried out to date, the donor's life is not restricted in any way with the kidney taken from healthy people who are suitable for transplantation. There is no deterioration in the health of kidney donors. If various and detailed examinations are started to be a kidney donor, any problems that may occur can be detected early — in this way, the quality of life can be increased with regular controls and treatment. In this process, the awareness of kidney donors about health also increases; they stay away from smoking and pay attention to their diet. Of course, these positive aspects do not show that the surgery is risk-free. Even the smallest surgical intervention has risks, albeit minimal. For this reason, there are risks related to the operation (infection, bleeding) in kidney donors. Healthy individuals who take these risks, albeit low, make sacrifices in kidney transplantation at this point. For this reason, it is vital to express the risks accurately and clearly to the donor, and to carry out these procedures in professional, successful centers with sufficient technical-technological facilities, where these risks will be kept at a minimum.

A kidney donor can return home from the hospital 2-3 days later. It may take up to 7 days for him to return to his daily life after the operation. However, this period may vary according to the surgical technique. The recovery process is faster in the methods performed with the retroperitoneoscopic technique. After the closed surgery, the scars are so small that they do not cause aesthetic anxiety, and the donor feels less pain. The application of the surgery with open, laparoscopic or robotic method is related to the health status of the people. The patient who has a kidney transplant can return home after 6-7 days. However, this period may vary according to the comorbidities of the patient.

After transplantation, you will take immunosuppressive medications for life to prevent rejection of the new kidney. These typically include a combination of calcineurin inhibitors (such as tacrolimus or cyclosporine), antiproliferative agents (mycophenolate mofetil) and corticosteroids in low doses. The exact regimen is tailored to your immune profile, the donor match and how your kidney functions over time. Adherence to the medication schedule is essential — missing doses puts the graft at risk.

Follow-up is frequent in the first months — typically twice a week for the first month, then weekly, then every two weeks. After three months, monthly visits are standard if everything is stable. After the first year, follow-up moves to every 3–6 months. Blood tests, drug-level monitoring and a full clinical assessment are part of each visit. The lifelong follow-up is what protects the graft and identifies problems early.

PIN is an outcome-driven paired exchange platform. When a patient has a willing living donor but they are not compatible (because of blood group or HLA), PIN searches across centers and borders to find another pair in the same situation. Donor A gives to recipient B; donor B gives to recipient A — a "swap". The program also identifies three- and four-way exchange cycles when a direct swap isn't possible. The matching engine ranks every cycle by clinical outcome quality, not just by transplant count.

Yes — that is exactly the situation PIN was built for. ABO (blood group) incompatibility, HLA antibody mismatch, or a positive cross-match all make traditional direct transplantation difficult or impossible. PIN's pool brings together many such pairs from participating centers. The larger and more diverse the pool, the higher the chance that a viable cycle exists for you. Your center coordinator will register your pair, and the engine will surface any matches that meet clinical safety criteria.