Goal: The objective of our study was to determine whether acceptable long-term graft survival and function can be achieved using pediatric en bloc renal transplants by employing specific immunologic and selection strategies.
Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of pediatric en bloc kidney transplants at a single institution was performed. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate graft survival.
Findings: Fifty-seven adult recipients with at least a 1-year follow-up period were successfully transplanted using pediatric en bloc kidneys between 1993 and 1998. Complete data regarding immunosuppression were available for 53 patients. All patients had a cyclosporine (CsA)- or tacrolimus (TAC)-based regimen with either azathioprine (Aza) or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and corticosteroids. All but two received induction with OKT3. One-, 3-, 4-, 5- and 7-year graft survival was calculated to be 88%, 86%, 83%, 68% and 68%, respectively. The mean serum creatinine value at 3 years was 1.0+/-0.4 mg/dL. Thirteen patients (23%) had biopsy-proven rejection. Ten of 19 (53%) patients treated with CsA/Aza had rejection, whereas 2/15 (13%) on CsA/MMF and 1/19 (5%) of patients on TAC/MMF had rejection. Nine patients (16%) had surgical complications.
Conclusion: Excellent long-term results can be achieved in pediatric en bloc kidney transplantation using OKT3, TAC and MMF in carefully selected adult recipients.