The finding of vascular and urinary anomalies in the harvested kidney for transplantation.
BACKGROUND
In kidney transplantation, anatomical vascular and excretory anomalies may represent causes of failure. Today's surgical techniques have made the most of the organs with anatomic anomalies and iatrogenic injury successfully used for transplantation.


METHODS
From January 2000 to June 2006, we harvested 230 kidneys, of including 88 kidneys (20%) with vascular, urinary, or vascular-urinary anomalies; 64 kidneys were implanted and 15 were sent to other transplantation centers. Only 9 kidneys were not appropriate for transplantation.


RESULTS
All patients who received kidneys with the above-mentioned anomalies were carefully examined after the transplantation and short-term and long-term complications were evaluated with respect to controls without anomalies.


CONCLUSIONS
Renal anatomic anomalies are frequently observed during kidney transplantation and may produce postsurgical complications. However, the presence of these anomalies does not necessarily imply the impossibility of using the kidney for a transplant, especially because of improved surgical techniques. Our experience in transplantation procedures showed that even if kidneys present the above-mentioned anomalies they can still be considered appropriate for transplantation when we perform a correct harvesting/back-table transplant surgery. So vascular and urinary anomalies have to be considered always an incentive to research new surgical solutions and to perform a careful surgical technique.
Santangelo
M
M
General, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery Department, O U of General Surgery and Organ Transplantation, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy. miichele.santangelo@unina.it
Clemente
M
M
De Rosa
P
P
Zuccaro
M
M
Pelosio
L
L
Caggiano
L
L
La Tessa
C
C
Renda
A
A
D004231:Diuresis; D006801:Humans; D007668:Kidney / Q000002:abnormalities*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000502:physiology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018579:Patient Selection; D012077:Renal Artery / Q000002:abnormalities; D012079:Renal Circulation; D012082:Renal Veins / Q000002:abnormalities; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014019:Tissue Donors; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting; D014551:Urinary Tract / Q000002:abnormalities*