Organ Transplantation

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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here

Learn More

• Living With
• Related Issues
• Specifics

See, Play and Learn

• No links available

Research

• Statistics and Research
• Clinical Trials

Resources

• Reference Desk
• Find an Expert

For You

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

Living With

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

Related Issues

• Food Safety for Transplant Recipients (Food and Drug Administration) - PDF
• Getting on the List (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Matching Organs (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Organ or Stem Cell Transplant and Your Mouth (National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research)
• Organ Transplant Patients and Fungal Infections (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Types of Cancer Associated with Transplant Recipients (United Network for Organ Sharing)
• Xenotransplantation (Food and Drug Administration)

Specifics

• Before the Transplant (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Statistics and Research

• Fixing Flawed Body Parts: Engineering New Tissues and Organs (National Institutes of Health) Also in Spanish
• Organ Donation and Transplantation Statistics (National Kidney Foundation)
• 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)

Reference Desk

• Organ Facts (United Network for Organ Sharing)

Find an Expert

• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Children

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

Seniors

• Organ Donation and Transplantation for Older Donors and Recipients: Resources from the U.S. Government (National Institute on Aging)

Patient Handouts

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