Seventeen kidney transplants have been performed in children during the last 8 years. Four patients were under the age of 12, while 13 patients were in the 12 to 17-year-old range. The technical features of kidney transplanatation in the pediatric age group are discussed and special problems of accommodating adult kidneys are considered.
Of 11 patients receiving kidneys from living related donors, seven are alive with functioning transplants, whereas three patients in this group are dead and one patient is on chronic dialysis. The results with one unrelated and five cadaver donor kidneys are not as good. Only one patient in this group has a functioning kidney. The complications within the first 8 weeks were technical, immunological, and secondary to infection while late complications included hypertension, diabetes, and evidence of drug toxicity. There have been only two failures after the first 2 months; one of chronic rejection and one of probable recurrence of the original disease.
En Bloc Cadaver Kidney Transplantation From a 9-Month-Old Donor to an Adult Recipient