Kidney transplantation from donors after cardiac death : studies on the pathophysiology and prevention of ischemic acute kidney injury and on the long-term outcome after transplantation

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for patients with terminal kidney insufficiency, but due to a shortage of donor kidneys many people are deprived from this optimal care. Organ donation after a cardiac arrest can make the number of kidney transplantations rise and shorten or even eliminate the waiting list for kidney transplantations. However, because these donor kidneys are damaged by ischemia in the period between the cardiac arrest and organ preservation, there is a reticence to accept these donor kidneys. For this reason this dissertation closely studies the entire transplantation process from donor to receiver to find clinically usable methods that can prevent this primary non-function of donor kidneys after a cardiac arrest. The research shows that kidney transplantations from donors after cardiac arrest lead to a longer life expectancy. Furthermore, in the transplantation process a series of clinically usable methods was found to lower the risk of non-functional transplantation kidneys.