1. Contraindications to renal transplant: 
-Active infection
-Active metastatic malignancy with shortened expected lifespan.
-Active substance abuse
-Reversible renal failure
-Life expectancy: variable; almost all centers will not do it if life expectancy is <1 year, most will not do it <5 years since that is the expected half life of a kidney.
2. Relative/soft contraindications to renal transplant
-Severe, uncorrectable cardiac or pulmonary disease such that the risks of surgery are high-- CAD, CHF, etc.
-Severe, uncorrectable peripheral or cerebral vascular disease
-Active hepatitis or severe chronic liver disease.
-Malnutrition
-Significant medical, psych, or social barriers to post-transplant compliance with immunosuppressants.
-Severe hyperparathyroidism
3. After a partial liver resection, the regenerative process consumes phosphate, at times very rapidly, and someone's phosphate can go from normal to very low in a matter hours. The pathogenesis is thought to be related to the increased production of ATP and nucleotides for the synthesis of proteins and DNA replication. In patients who have undergone liver resections, their phosphate needs to be aggressively replenished, IV if PO is not fast enough. In adults (>18 years), phosphate is normally 2.5-4.5 mg/dL (in kids, its higher, age 1-7 is around 4.5-5.5). You want to keep these people around the upper limit of normal.
4. If you're going to do a TIPS procedure on someone, make sure that their hepatic artery is patent. If you shunt the portal vein to the cava, and their hepatic artery is clotted off (common after transplant), you will cause ischemia of the entire liver.
5. ATN affects proximal tubules, not distal, so kidneys still respond to ADH. In patients with ATN, they lose the ability to pull back solutes so their urine will have the same electrolyte concentrations as blood, i.e. whatever you put in them IV or PO. If they are hypernatremic, however, realize that that may trigger ADH secretion, which will pull back water and make the urine appear more concentrated and may give a false illusion of normal function. In reality, people who are experiencing ATN (say after transplant) generally will produce a more dilute urine; this may be because of more widespread damage (involving tubules) that makes the kidneys unable to pull back water. Or this may be due to fewer functional glomeruli, increased filtration pressure combined with more tubular dysfunction through the remaining ones. In any case, the results is that if you're giving someone NS and they're peeing out 1/2NS, they will become hypernatremic so watch for that. 24 hour urine electrolytes are much more accurate than spot checks, as they adjust for short-term variations in ADH
6. Hepatorenal syndrome-- there is nothing wrong with the kidneys per se, at least not at first. The physiology is essentially prerenal, involving a combo of shunt away from the kidneys (splanchnic vasodilation) and global vasoconstriction in the kidneys unresponsive to NO treatment. If the patient receives a liver transplant, the hepatorenal will be cured. Otherwise, over time, ischemia will develop and irreversible damage. The time frame is thought to be around 3 mos-- before then, do not transplant a kidney! Just dialyze them.
7. A gunshot wound to the head can trigger DIC, as brain lipids released into the blood can activate the coagulation pathway. These people may or may not be good organ donors, depending on the extent of organ thrombosis. Kidneys for example-- if you have a big clot that lead to whole-kidney ischemia, that organ isn't going to be transplantable, but microvascular occlusions will heal over time.
8. In someone with diabetic retinopathy, the significant fluid shifts and vital sign changes that inevitably accompany surgery can cause rupture and bleeding of the eye vessels. Before you go for surgery, they may need laser retina surgery to stabilize their retinopathy-- get clearance from optho.
9. Dialysis can cause b-2 microglobulin amyloidosis, since dialysis machines are not always good at clearing it. Clinical symptoms are mostly related to joint/bone pain: carpel tunnel syndrome, scapulohumeral periarthritis, spondyloarthropathy, cystic bone lesions. You can get also get deposits in the GI tract that may interfere with absorption. Longer, slower dialysis leads to lower incidence of this since it clears the amyloid better (overnight is best), as do some high-flux dialysis membranes.
10. If someone is going to be on a ventilator for a long time (>1-2 weeks), they have to get a trach. Endotracheal tubes are associated with increased morbidity with long-term use.