Everyone hears all the time that donating a kidney or other vital organs can save another's life, but the fact is it could save the donor's life as well. One man in North Carolina learned this lesson firsthand, serving as a reminder that what comes around goes around.

Many news outlets, including the Today Show, highlighted how a pastor decided to be tested for a kidney donation that would go to a man he barely knew, because it was the right thing to do. For quite a few people, going under the knife is a scary situation, but this man had the courage to come forward and potentially save another's life. When doctors found that the two were a match, the donor went ahead with the procedure, never imagining what would happen next.

After seven hours in surgery, the pastor's wife was concerned that something was not right. Her intuition was correct, because the surgeons had found an aneurysm in the renal artery. The condition had not been discovered previously, which is actually surprisingly common, putting him in grave danger.

Had the doctors not discovered the aneurysm, the kidney donor would have been in dire risk of dying suddenly once the artery ruptured. The story serves as a solid reminder about a silent killer that often goes undetected until it is too late.    

The fact is there often are no symptoms for a renal artery aneurysm (RAA), making them particularly deadly and a scary condition. In some cases, RAA is caused by atherosclerosis, or the hardening of the arteries. Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), which is a disease that involves the arteries narrowing, has also been cited as a potential cause as well.

Typically, those at risk for RAA are around 40 to 60 years old, with women being statistically more susceptible to the condition. There are some lifestyle factors that also increase the likelihood of RAA, including hypertension (especially when it onsets at a later age), diabetes, high cholesterol and a habit of smoking. 

When a RAA is caught before rupturing, it often is when doctors are imaging the area for another condition. If left alone, the aneurysm will usually burst around the time it reaches about two centimeters in diameter, which is why repairing the damage is necessary.

With a smaller RAA, doctors might choose to simply observe the condition for signs of growth or health conditions triggered by it. Once it grows larger, the patient is/might become pregnant, or if the condition is causing kidney ischemia (cutting off necessary blood flow to the kidney tissue) a surgical treatment might be in order.

The procedure must be performed in a hospital, often with urology and vascular surgeons doing the work. Most people spend about three to five days in the hospital recovering, then must take it easy for about a month before returning to life as normal.

In some rare cases, the condition can be treated with a minimally invasive medical procedure, which only requires a single day in the hospital and about a week of recovery at home.

Modern medical science seems to be making leaps and bounds forward all the time. We don’t have a cure for the common cold, but honestly, that doesn’t matter when you look at some of the amazing things that are happening in laboratories around the world today. Take this recent example of a kidney grown in a lab. This is huge news. Even though techniques to make this kidney were similar to those used to grow other types of organs, the kidney is extraordinarily complex.

Getting the kidney to work right has always been an issue, but new experiments are showing that the scientists are nearly there. They have been able to grow a kidney and transplant it into a rat. At that point, the bioengineered kidneys were able to take over and start filtering blood and making urine. While this is amazing, it is important to remember that growing actual human kidneys is still a ways off. They still need to perfect the technology, as these lab kidneys are not quite as effective as the real thing, at least not yet. Still, they show an amazing amount of promise, and that should be great news for those who work in this field and those who are suffering as well

The technique requires a kidney stripped of its internal contents, which then re-grow thanks to cells from the patient. This scaffolding technique sounds complicated, and it is. However, similar techniques have worked with other organs before, and it works on a small scale with kidneys right now. If these prove to be successful, it could mean that people no longer have to be on a waiting list for kidneys – they can grow them. It also means there is less of a chance that the body will reject the kidney when using this technique. 

Our blog entries are for your information only and are not intended as medical advice. Because everyone is different, we recommend you work with your medical professional to determine what’s best for you.