At this time, the patient begins taking immunosuppressive medication. Depending on the organ, the surgery lasts approximately three to eight hours. When the surgery is completed, the patient is taken to the recovery room, and then over the subsequent days to a step-down unit. Careful, comprehensive post-surgical monitoring constantly evaluates whether the body is accepting the new organ. The length of stay in the hospital is determined by a number of factors, including overall health of the patient before surgery and, of course, the organ transplanted.
Hospital stays generally extend from one to nine weeks.
The Outpatient Clinic Follow-up care initially involves returning to the Outpatient Clinic weekly for the first month after leaving the hospital. A series of tests, including blood tests, are conducted to closely monitor the patient s progress. This is a period when medications are precisely adjusted to reach a point of effective stability. After this initial period, patients are seen periodically as determined by their condition. While transplantation can greatly improve the recipients' quality of life, it also demands much of them.