Primary Care of the Solid Organ Transplant Recipient

Solid organ transplantation offers a new chance at life to those suffering from failing organs. With these successes, however, comes the everyday management that is required to maintain health. The field of solid organ transplantation has become a part of medicine that generalists should be familiar with, as recipients are living longer and frequently returning to primary care for management. While specialists will still need to be involved with the care of solid organ transplant recipients on a life-long basis, many conditions will still need initial and often ongoing care by generalists, including infections, metabolic conditions, psychiatric illnesses, and malignancy. This book focuses on the care of adult solid organ transplant recipients, and is targeted at the level of the primary care provider. It begins with an introduction and overviews of solid organ transplantation and anti-rejection medications. It then delves into organ-specific chapters that provide the primary care provider with an overview of how to take care of patients with the most commonly-transplanted solid organs: kidney, kidney-pancreas, liver, heart, and lung. The final section focuses on specific complications that arise from transplantation including cancer, metabolic conditions, infections, and common presenting syndromes. Preventative health is also discussed, and the book concludes with a chapter on palliative care.