Anaesthesia for renal transplantation: an update

Attempts at organ transplantation have been made since the 19(th) century. Renal transplantation is the preferred treatment for end stage renal disease. Renal transplant anaesthesia requires a thorough understanding of the metabolic and systemic abnormalities in end stage renal disease, familiarity with transplant medicine and expertise in managing and optimizing these patients for the best possible outcome. Also, the associated co-morbid conditions increase the complexity of anaesthesia, pain management and perioperative morbidity and mortality. Hence, a good perioperative management of these patients includes a multidisciplinary collaboration with well-planned anaesthetic strategies.