Nephrectomy

[KarenB]

My neph said I may have to have my kidneys removed because they are so big.  The size of footballs he says.  He said if I do PD and with the size of my kidneys there would not be room for all the fluid.  Anyone else have this problem?

[Ginger]

I did PD successfully for 2 1/2 years before needing a nephrectomy due to very large kidneys. I have PKD.   I switched to hemo only for the healing time from the nephrectomy---I only let them take one out since that was all that was needed to make room for a transplant. I was just getting ready to return to PD when I got the call for a transplant. The freedom from dialysis is great!!!

[charee]

i have PKD and have to have one of my kidneys removed before i can get on the transplant list as there is no room to put the new kidney when and if i get the call . It should happen later this year I do home hemo and was told i coudn't do pd because of the size of my kidneys and the no room.

[Black]

Mike has PKD and everyone told him that his kidneys were too large for PD and to plan on HD when the time came.  His neph told him that the time may come when the pressure on his other organs is too great and he may need the larger one removed.

For some reason the US docs seem to be reluctant to remove the PKD kidneys for alleviation of pain and even less inclined for freeing space for a later transplant.  If it were any other non-working mass of tissue, full of cysts, recurrent infections, periodic bleeds, and source of almost constant pain, the surgeons would be falling over each other trying to remove it.