Kidney transplantation – Principles and practice

This is a book that nephrologists, urologists, transplant physicians and surgeons alike have used as their ‘go-to’ reference since its initial edition in 1978 and is also an invaluable resource for transplant residents in their training. In this new edition, the authors have combined related chapters and added a few new ones based on the topics of current relevance. There are several new descriptive figures and pictures, with many of them in colour that improve the readability of the book and make the topic at hand better understood, even by the novice student of renal transplantation. The book is organized with a view of leading the reader from the past to the present and the future. It spans across the basic principles to their clinical importance and application and from care of the patient in the pre-transplant period with renal replacement therapy and dialysis access to early and late management of the transplant recipient, evaluation and care of the deceased and living donors to post-transplant complications. Psychological, ethical and legal aspects of transplantation are also discussed.

In the perusal of the book, the reader is gifted a veritable feast into what is current and what is upcoming. The topic pharmacology of immunosuppressive drugs and transplant histopathology has been dealt with in detail. For the transplant surgeon and urologist, topics such transplantation in a patient who has an abnormal bladder, surgical techniques of renal transplantation, donor nephrectomy and per-operative care of transplant recipients are important topics that are covered. Post-transplant malignancies, pancreas and kidney transplantation, paediatric transplantation and transplantation in developing nations like India are the topics of importance and interest and have each merited one chapter in this book. Certain tables of the previous edition have been highlighted differently as boxes to emphasize the text within them.

As in the earlier editions, the book begins with detailed overview of relevant transplantation history. The chapter, the immunology of transplantation has been re-written with explanatory notes and colourful pictures. Topics of great interest, debate and intrigue such as the role of microbiome in transplant immunology are also discussed. Updates regarding possible consideration of acceptability of donors with certain viral infections based on latest guidelines have been included. For example, hepatitis B virus core antibody positivity is not considered a contraindication for organ donation, providing there was no active infection. Similarly, deceased donors with hepatitis C virus or human immunodeficiency virus infections could be considered as potential donors to prospective recipients with similar infections.

The chapter on transplantation and the abnormal bladder has been re-written to include the detailed assessment of the bladder and American Urology Association symptom scores. The chapters on immunosuppressive drugs have been updated with the latest research and those on azathioprine and mycophenolic acid have been combined with easy comparability. There are a couple of new chapters, the one on kidney allocation is new and, though brief, gives a global overview, and the one on biomarkers of allograft injury rejection gives exhaustive detail on this promising subject. The section on pathology has been thoroughly updated and includes the latest Banff classification. The chapter, kidney transplantation in developing countries’ has been re-written and focuses mainly on the need in the continent of Africa.

The book closes with the chapters on the latest in outcomes following successful kidney transplantation, ethical, legal and psychological aspects of transplantation and rounds off with the latest available evidence for clinical practice. Overall, it is a well-written and comprehensive book with the latest on kidney transplantation and is a must for every academic library, if not for each transplantation enthusiast.