Can a person live long after one kidney has been removed?

Removal of a Kidney

Q. Can a person live long after one kidney has been removed?

A. The removal of one kidney has been successfully accomplished in many cases. One kidney is able to eliminate the waste products which naturally escape through this outlet, at least under favorable conditions.

Vitzou, after removal of one-half of one kid­ney, a month later extirpated the other kidney and found that the half kidney remaining intact sufficed to maintain the renal function and that excretion and the internal secretions remained normal.

Many experiments have shown that human be­ings can exist with a single kidney, provided the organ is intact, and it has been observed that when one kidney is removed the remaining kid­ney enlarges considerably in size and its activity becomes very greatly increased. In young ani­mals there is an actual increase in the number of secreting cells and of their tubes, while in adults there is merely an increase in the size of these secreting structures without any increase in the number of them.

It is thus apparent that Nature has provided a larger capacity for kidney work than is ordinarily required for the maintenance of life. This ca­pacity may be reduced by removal of the kidney, as in the experiment above referred to, by dam­age inflicted upon the kidney by over work, and by the gradual deterioration which comes with age. So long as the kidney capacity is sufficient to deal with all the work required of it, no in­ convenience is experienced, though the amount of toxins taken into the body and the amount of work required may be much larger than normal. But sooner or later the kidney becomes in­ capacitated by the extraordinary amount of work required of it, and then ill effects begin to make their appearance and the kidney fails prematurely. This is the fate of tobacco users.