Kidney transplant is a procedure whereby a patient’s defective kidney(s) is surgically removed and replaced by a healthy one(s) from a donor. The healthy kidney is usually from a living or a deceased donor. Kidney transplant usually becomes necessary when one has end stage renal disease, a condition commonly referred to as kidney failure. Although a significant number of kidney transplants usually turn out well, there are still cases of kidney transplant complications. It is important to know how to avoid infection following a kidney transplant procedure as complications can range to major ones which may necessitate an urgent removal of the transplanted organ. The kidney transplant complications can broadly be grouped as either falling under anatomical or pathological complications. Below is a list of five complications that commonly occur following kidney transplantation.
1. Allograft rejection
Graft rejection is described as the most common kidney transplant complication. It occurs when the body’s immune system rejects the donor’s kidney. The rejection can occur either immediately or much later on, even up to a year afterwards. Rejection results from T cell activation which in turn activates specific antibodies against the donor organ. The rejection can either stem from ABO blood group or human leukocyte antigen (HLA) incompatibility.
2. Infections
Infections, especially viral and bacterial ones are very common in patients who’ve undergone kidney transplantation procedures. This is because kidney patients have to live on long-term immunosuppressive therapy and this renders them immunocompromised. Infectious pathogens therefore take advantage of this weakened immune state to cause them diseases. Cytomegalovirus is an example of some of the diseases which commonly occur following renal transplantation.
3. Malignancies
Due to their immunosuppressed state, kidney transplant patients are usually at more risk of cancers and other malignancies. Cancers associated with viruses such as Hodgkin Lymphoma and Kaposi’s Sarcoma are in particular known to be common in kidney transplant patients. Aside from immunosuppression, some calcineurin inhibitor drugs used by transplant patients could also be directly responsible for some of the growths and malignancies. 
4. Renal artery stenosis
Following the transplantation surgery, the renal artery could narrow or even become blocked. Renal artery stenosis puts patients at an increased risk of arterial thrombosis. Being that it is the major vessel supplying the kidney, a thrombosis in such a case will lead to renal ischemia and necrosis. All these outcomes are usually fatal if not promptly redressed.
5. Urological complications
Another aftermath of kidney transplantation could be urine leakage. Urine may leak as a result of surgical interference with the ureters and renal vascular vessels. It is a problem that will in turn require surgical correction.
