Objective: To study the clinical characters and the therapeutic experience of pediatric kidney transplantation.
Methods: Clinical data of 23 pediatric renal transplant recipients (less than 18 years, 14 boys, 9 girls) were analyzed. Recipients were 11 - 17 (mean 15.4 +/- 1.0 years) years old at transplantation. The kidneys were transplanted en bloc extraperitoneally into the recipient's iliac fossa, with the donor renal vein anastomosed to the recipient's external iliac vein. Among 23 transplant procedures, the donor renal artery was anastomosed to the external iliac artery in 14 cases, to the internal iliac artery in 4 cases and to the common iliac artery in 3. The other two allografts were unusual. All the patients were treated with cyclosporine or tacrolimus based immunosuppression, including steroid and azathioprine or mycophenolate mofetil. The initial dose of cyclosporine was 6 - 7 mg per kilogram of body weight per day and that of tacrolimus was 0.15 - 0.20 mg per kilogram of body weight per day. The data of the recovery of renal function, rejection episodes, incidences of side effect and related complication were analyzed respectively.
Results: The transplantation operations were performed uneventful in all the 23 recipients. There were no graft losses for technical reasons. The single graft failure was the result from bad compliance. The renal function was improved 5.5 days in average after transplantation in 22 cases. Main complications were arterial hypertension (57%), pulmonary infection (13%), drug-induced hepatic injury (13%) and bone marrow suppression (13%). Acute rejection occurred in 4 persons 1 year post-operatively (17%). The body weight of the recipients increased 2.3 kg in average and height increased 1.0 cm after the first post-operative year. The mean duration for follow-up was 42 month. One-year patient/graft survival rate was 100%/96% and three-year patient/graft survival rate was 90%/80%.
Conclusion: Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end stage renal failure in children patient. The well procedure, reasonable immunosuppressive regime, prevention and prompt therapy of complication are the keys to get satisfactory survival rate of human/kidney.