Kidney preservation by surface cooling: analysis of 130 transplants.

An analysis of 130 consecutive cadaveric renal transplants has shown the effectiveness of simple surface cooling of organs before transplantation. The primary graft failure rate was 10%, and kidneys could be stored for periods of up to 12 hours including warm ischaemia times of 150 minutes. Forty-eight patients received haemodialysis before transplantation and 78 patients received peritoneal dialysis. There were significant differences in the incidence of tubular necrosis in the two groups: these may have been linked to the differences in fluid and osmotic load presented to the transplants.