A 25 year history of kidney transplantation at the Washington Hospital Center.
The kidney and pancreas transplant programs at the Washington Hospital Center have been active participants in the evolution of transplantation over these past 25 years. Many things have come full cycle. Living donors are again becoming the dominant source of donor kidneys. The interest in non-heart beating donors has returned, which may expand the cadaver donor pool significantly. Pulsatile machine preservation of kidneys has resurfaced and is gaining popularity again. Notwithstanding these cycles, the dominant advance in the past 25 years has been the virtual elimination of early graft loss from acute rejection. We owe a great debt to all those who have perfected and made available to all of us more powerful and more specific immunosuppressive tools. For while tomorrow the algorithm for achieving graft acceptance may completely change, for today a successful transplant outcome depends entirely on the quality of immunosuppression, assuming the surgical procedure was also successful.
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Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA.
D000328:Adult; D002102:Cadaver; D004219:District of Columbia; D006085:Graft Survival; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000379:methods; D016035:Pancreas Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D044469:Racial Groups; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data