Living kidney transplantation: a starting experience.
BACKGROUND
We present our initial experience with living kidney transplantation.


METHODS
From January 2001 to December 2002, we performed 27 living kidney transplants using immunosuppression with induction basiliximab, cyclosporine (n = 10 patients), or tacrolimus (n = 17), mycophenolate mofetil, and steroids.


RESULTS
Nineteen (70.3%) donors were women and 8 (29.7%) were men of mean age 50.6 years. Four donors were over 65 years of age at the time of living donation. Donor morbidity was 5.5%: namely, one wound infection and one asymptomatic acute pancreatitis. There were no differences between the preoperative and the postoperative mean serum creatinines and systolic blood pressure values. All living donors are in good health with a mean serum creatinine of 0.80 mg/dL at a mean follow-up of 15.2 months. Nineteen (70.3%) recipients were men and 8 (29.7%) were women of mean age 36 years. Acute rejection occurred in 6 (22.2%) recipients. It was more common among spousal donors and among cyclosporine-treated recipients. Patient and graft survivals at a mean follow-up of 15.2 months was 100%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our early results showed that accurate selection and preoperative management of potential living donors lead to excellent results in kidney transplantation. The health of the living donors was not impaired by the donation. The rate of early postoperative complications was low. Living donor kidney transplantation, in our geographical area with a low-rate of cadaveric donor transplants, is an alternative to expand the donor pool, which offers better results in term of patient and graft survival.
Veroux
P
P
Department of Surgery, Transplantation, and Advanced Technologies, Kidney Transplant Unit, University Hospital of Catania, Catania, Italy. pveroux@unict.it
Veroux
M
M
Puliatti
C
C
Macarone
M
M
Cappello
D
D
Caglià
P
P
Puliatti
D
D
Vizcarra
D
D
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods; D007558:Italy; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000276:immunology / Q000379:methods*; D019520:Living Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000009:adverse effects; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018454:Spouses