Treatment of end-stage renal disease by transplantation: clinical results with 111 cases.

The efficacy of renal transplantation for patients with end-stage renal disease was reviewed in 108 patients receiving 111 transplants followed for an average of two and one-half years after transplantation. Overall patient survival decreased 10 per cent per year from 90 per cent after the first year to 70 per cent at three years. Kidney survival was slightly less, with a similar pattern. Patients with better tissue matches and living related donor allografts had fewer and less severe rejections and better ultimate function than did patients with poor tissue matches and cadaver allografts. However, a significant number of patients with poor tissue matches and cadaver allografts had excellent results. Eighty-six per cent of all survivors with functioning kidneys had serum creatinines of 2.0 mg./100 ml. or below. Mortality was associated primarily with sepsis from a variety of bacterial, fungal, viral and protozoan organisms often associated with other complications such as rejection or gastrointestinal bleeding. Recipients over the age of 40 were in a higher risk group. Rejection per se, however, played a minor role. Urological and skeletal complications were a major source of morbidity but were not associated with mortality.