How dangerous is it to have a kidney transplanted?

Surgery has risks: All surgeries are potentially serious. A kidney transplant has significant risks but the benefits usually outweigh the risks.

Safer than dialysis: Risk assessment is a major part of the txp team's evaluation process. Only pts who are expected to survive at least 3 years should be transplanted, since that is 1 of the key measures used by the gov't to evaluate txp programs. Prolonged dialysis, however, lowers the chance of doing well as pts age + become sicker. If a pt can't walk 1 block (or equivalent activity) pre-txp, survival is unlikely.

Risks: It is a major surgery that requires general anesthesia. A potential recipient will undergo an extensive eval to make sure that there are no contraindication for the surgery. With any type of surgery, there will be post-surgical complications (bleeding, infections, etc). Kidney transplant recipients will be taking 2-3 anti-rejection meds which raises the risk of infections.