EX-VIVO SURGERY OF THE KIDNEY - INDICATIO NS AND RESULTS

394 renal transplantations have been performed in our unit between 197 4 and 1995. In all instances extra-corporal surgical procedures on the graft, its vessels. and, in rare instances, on the collecting system were necessary. The surgical procedures, which took up to 90 minutes o n the work-bench, ranged from repair of minor iatrogenic vascular inju ries to major vascular reconstructions, in order to facilitate the sub sequent implantation of the graft. During the same period work-bench s urgical procedures with subsequent autotransplantation were performed in 8 patients. The indication for such a procedure was a renal cell ca rcinoma in 2 patients with a solitary kidney and bilateral renal cell carcinoma in 1 patient, as well as renovascular disease (renal artery stenosis, aneurysm of the renal artery) in the remaining 5 cases.