title: Steady improvement in short-term graft survival of pediatric renal transplants: the NAPRTCS experience.
abstract: This report of pediatric renal transplantation covers the years 1987-1998. Since its inception in 1987, the NAPRTCS has collected data on 6,038 transplants performed in 5,516 patients provided by 73 renal centers across the country. FSGS, together with developmental lesions of dysplasia and obstructive uropathy, account for 40% of all transplants. There has been a steady increase in the use of LD donors among children with 54% of all transplants in 1996 and 1997 being live-related. About 72% of LD transplants are performed in Caucasian children, with African-American children unfortunately receiving a disproportionate percentage of CD kidneys. There has been a steady decline in the use of CD kidneys recovered from young individuals and a gradual decline in the number of transplants performed in young recipients (< 6 years old). Graft survival for LD recipients was 91%, 84% and 79% at one, 3 and 5 years, respectively, and the comparative figures for CD recipients were 81%, 72% and 64%, respectively. Acute and chronic rejections account for most of the graft losses, with chronic rejection accounting for more than 30%. There has been a steady improvement in one-year graft survival of CD recipients with the 1997-1998 cohort exhibiting an improvement of 16% over the 1987-1988 cohort. This improvement has been brought about by eliminating the use of infant donor kidneys, reducing the number of random transfusions and increasing the maintenance dose of cyclosporine. Posttransplant growth continues to be poor, with catch-up growth being exhibited only in children under age 6.
authors.affiliation: New York Medical College, Hawthorne, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tejani
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Stablein
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Donaldson
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Harmon
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kohaut
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Emmett
authors.forename: R N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Fine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002102:Cadaver; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005006:Ethnicity; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000453:epidemiology; D006085:Graft Survival; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019520:Living Donors; D009656:North America; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data