Kidney transplant and dialysis are two options for patients with kidney failure. A kidney transplant involves surgically implanting a donor kidney by connecting the artery, vein and ureter. The transplant takes about 3-4 hours under general anesthesia. Dialysis works by diffusing solutes and fluid across a semi-permeable membrane from the blood to a dialysate fluid to remove waste, with hemodialysis being the most common type where blood is cleaned in a dialysis machine and returned to the body.