Why is it impossible to transplant a bladder? It seems strange to me that a heart can be transplanted and a bladder can’t.

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Why is it impossible to transplant a bladder? It seems strange to me that a heart can be transplanted and a bladder can’t.

In: Biology

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The body have a very strong immune system which is designed to detect and destroy any foreign biological matter. That unfortunately includes functioning organs from other people. So transplant patients have to take medication for the rest of their lives to suppress their immune system which does leave them more open to infections and might even get complications from the medication themselves. So doctors will try to avoid doing transplants if they are not needed. In the case of the bladder it is a very simple organ that you can do without or with simple man made versions. So even in the rare cases where the bladder have to be removed the doctors will not transplant inn a bladder from someone else as the complications from a transplant is worse then the complications from having the bladder removed entirely. And depending on the exact reason for why the bladder had to be removed they can even just put in a plastic bladder instead as it will not be attacked by the immune system.

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