Solid Organ Transplantation

As patients live longer with functioning allografts, the prevalence of solid organ transplant recipients will continue to increase, thus making it likely that many primary care providers will treat patients with an organ transplant. As the population of living transplant recipients grows, primary care providers will increasingly play a key role in the long-term management of transplant recipients. The introductory case presentation and discussion aim to educate the primary care provider about common medical problems experienced by transplant recipients, to provide some fundamental knowledge of immunosuppressive medications and their drug interactions, and to highlight key issues when comanagement with the transplant sub-subspecialist is indicated. Though the chapter focuses on kidney transplantation, the issues can be related to liver and cardiac transplant recipients with some caveats.