Topics
What are anti-rejection medicines?
Normally, your body fights off anything that isn't part of itself, like germs and viruses. That system of protection is called your immune system. To stop your body from attacking or rejecting the donated kidney, you will have to take medicines to keep your immune system less active (called anti-rejection medicines or immunosuppressive medicines). You'll need to take them as long as your new kidney is working. Without them, your immune system would see the donated kidney as "foreign," and would "attack" it, leading to rejection.
There are two types of anti-rejection medicines:
- Induction medicines: Powerful antirejection medicine used at the time of transplant
- Maintenance medicines: Antirejection medicines used for the long term.
You can watch this video to learn more about anti-rejection medicines:
We want to know what you think.
Help us continue to improve this content by answering a short survey.