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914 Utah Street Unit C
Weslaco Office
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With the tremendous improvements in transplant management, most patients with kidney failure can be considered for transplantation. We perform more than 300 kidney transplants per year and have one of the nation's largest kidney transplant programs. We are also at the forefront of laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy, which has made kidney transplantation much easier
Evaluation
All transplant candidates begin with a comprehensive series of tests conducted by our multidisciplinary specialists. Some of these tests are required for any operative procedure (history and physical, chest x-ray, EKG, etc.) while others (such as specific blood tests) are required for transplantation surgery.
After a candidate is accepted for transplantation, he or she is listed with the Transplant Resource Center and is added to regional and national lists of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The allocation of organs is based upon a point system which takes into account medical urgency, time on the waiting list and blood type compatibility. Because of the ongoing shortage of donor organs in this country, candidates may be on waiting lists for a year or longer.
In the case of kidney patients, the identification of possible living donors is an important part of the pre-transplant screening process.
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