LIVING-RELATED RENAL-TRANSPLANTATION - THE CHRISTCHURCH EXPERIENCE

Aim. To determine the outcome of renal transplants from living related donors.Methods. Retrospective analysis of 33 living related donor ren al transplants done between March 1976 and 31 December 1994 at Christc hurch Hospital. Results. One of the 33 renal transplants patients rece ived an ABO incompatible kidney and was excluded from the statistical analysis. Twenty-one (66%) of 32 grafts continue to function. The 1, 5 and 10 year graft survival rates were 82%, 73% and 48%, respectively. The estimated 1 and 10 year patient survival rates were 96% and 94%, respectively. With the introduction of cyclosporin the 1 and 5 year gr aft survival rates increased to 90% and 80%, respectively. Three patie nts received donor specific transfusion preconditioning and one patien t a skin graft from the prospective donor. Four patients (12.5%) had c urrent and/or peak panel reactive antibody titres of more than 25%. Th ree of these grafts failed after 2, 95 and 463 days. Two grafts were l ost due to catastrophic vascular complications. Conclusion. The overal l outcome for patients who were not highly sensitised was excellent. T he degree of sensitisation of the recipient, and the extent of atheros clerotic vascular disease in the recipient, were major predisposing fa ctors for the graft loss due to rejection and vascular complications d uring the early post transplant period.