Organ Transplantation

On this page

Basics

• Summary
• Start Here

Learn More

• Living With
• Related Issues
• Specifics

See, Play and Learn

• No links available

Research

• Statistics and Research
• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

Resources

• Reference Desk
• Find an Expert

For You

• Children
• Patient Handouts

Summary

You may need an organ transplant if one of your organs has failed. This can happen because of illness or injury. When you have an organ transplant, doctors remove an organ from another person and place it in your body. The organ may come from a living donor or a donor who has died.

The organs that can be transplanted include:

• Heart
• Intestine
• Kidney
• Liver
• Lung
• Pancreas

You often have to wait a long time for an organ transplant. Doctors must match donors to recipients to reduce the risk of transplant rejection. Rejection happens when your immune system attacks the new organ. If you have a transplant, you must take drugs the rest of your life to help keep your body from rejecting the new organ.

Start Here

• Organ Transplant Process (Health Resources and Services Administration) Also in Spanish
• Organ Transplantation: Frequently Asked Questions (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Partnering with Your Transplant Team: The Patient's Guide to Transplantation (Health Resources and Services Administration; United Network for Organ Sharing) - PDF
• Talking about Transplantation: What Every Patient Needs to Know (United Network for Organ Sharing) - PDF

Living With

• After the Transplant (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Post-transplant Medications (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Preventing Rejection (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Related Issues

• How Organs Are Matched (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Xenotransplantation (Food and Drug Administration)

Specifics

• Before the Transplant (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Statistics and Research

• The SRTR/OPTN Annual Data Report (Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients)
• U.S. Transplantation Data (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Organ Transplantation (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Acceptance of Organs from Deceased Donors With Resolved or Active SARS-CoV-2...
• Article: Impact of Oral Infection on Organ Transplantation: A Systematic Review.
• Article: COVID-19 clinical phenotypes in vaccinated and nonvaccinated solid organ transplant recipients:...
• Organ Transplantation -- see more articles

Reference Desk

• Organ Facts and Surgeries (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Find an Expert

• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
• Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (Health Resources and Services Administration)

Children

• Organ Transplants: What Every Kid Needs to Know (United Network for Organ Sharing) - PDF

Patient Handouts

• Transplant rejection (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Transplant services (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish