OUR EFFORTS IN CADAVERIC RENAL TRANSPLANTATION

Abstract

Renal transplantation is one of the most preferable modalities of treatment for end stage renal disease. Shortage of the organs has forced physicians to use marginal donors. We have performed 137 renal transplantations which 38 (27.7%) of them were cadaveric, between Feb. 1995 and May 2001. In these procedures, 13 donors were marginal, while 25 were standard. 4 (10.5%) of them were primary nonfunctioning. The remaining 34 cadaveric transplantations were followed-up for mean 52 months. The warm ischemia time of all 5 non-heart beating kidneys was between 30 and 45 minutes, while of the remaining kidneys was below 5 minutes. The mean of the warm ischemia time was 21.5 hours. Delayed graft function was seen in 30 and 12% of the marginal and standard groups, respectively. 19 complications were seen with 31 % rate in the marginal and 48% in the standard groups. The complications were encountered as vascular (n:5), urinary (n:1), lymphocel (n:1) and malignancy (n:2). In 7 (20.5%) of the patients, graft lost was detected. 1 and 5-year graft survival were 83, 83 and 91,61% in the marginal and standard groups; respectively. 7 (20.5%) patients died. 1 and 5-year patient survival were 83, 83 and 91, 77% in the marginal and standard groups, respectively. We concluded that marginal donors are good alternatives to enlarge "organ pool" with properly selected cases.