The Transplant Center

Kidney Transplant

The Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program at Primary Children's Hospital is a collaborative effort with the University of Utah Kidney Transplant Program.

We provide specialized pediatric inpatient care along with substantial outpatient resources and supportive services important to transplantation medicine. Patients continue to be followed by the multidisciplinary pediatric transplant team at regular intervals until transitioned to adult transplant care. Our program provides transplantation for an average of 15 transplants per year.

What Sets Us Apart

We provide specialized pediatric inpatient care along with substantial outpatient resources and supportive services important to transplantation medicine. Patients continue to be followed by the multidisciplinary pediatric transplant team at regular intervals until transitioned to adult transplant care. Our program provides transplantation for an average of 15 transplants per year.

Meet the Team

The Kidney Transplant Team is made up of many care professionals whose focus and responsibility is to work with families to ensure the health and success of a child's kidney transplant. Meet the doctors, nurses, and other team members you'll get to know during your transplant care. 

Nephrologists

Nephrologists are doctors who treat kidney disease. A nephrologist will help decide if transplant is needed, manage the patient's health problems before and after kidney transplant surgery, prescribe medications after surgery and consult other doctors for health concerns not related to the kidney.

Transplant Surgeons

Our team consists of specialized transplant surgeons who will help decide if a transplant is needed, perform the kidney transplant surgery, manage patient recovery right after the surgery and during the patient's hospital stay, including monitoring and taking care of the incision.

What to Expect

When the kidneys stop working, toxic waste products build up in the body, eventually resulting in end-stage kidney disease.  A child who reaches end-stage kidney disease will need either dialysis — a mechanical process for filtering waste products out of blood — or a transplant. Neither of these options cures kidney failure. However, a successful transplant offers the closest thing to a normal state.