What is the shelf life of a transplanted kidney?
Your body tries to “destroy” the kidney in the first year after the transplant. A lot of variables come into play but the closest match, such as a living relative donor, has the best chance of your body accepting the transplant. The averages are about 9 to 12 years depending on the match. I can’t find the literature I have on it right now so I am going strictly from memory but I think those are pretty close estimates. I recently talked to a man at the renal transplant center in my hospital who received a kidney from the cadaver list that has lasted 15 years.