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Small children have often been reported to have poor outcome after kidney transplantation (KT). Recent reports from North America have shown that the use of living-related donors improves patient and graft survival. We report the experience in one centre of primary cadaveric KT using sequential immunosuppression in nine children aged 8-30 months and weighing 5.4-9.8 kg; donors were 0.7-12.3 years old. Four patients had pre-emptive KT and the other five were on peritoneal dialysis; the mean +/- SD waiting time was 2.0 +/- 2.4 months. Perioperative care has been published previously. The surgical approach was intraperitoneal if the aorta and vena cava were used (n = 7) and extraperitoneal for common iliac vessels anastomosis (n = 2); the duration of surgery was 3.5 +/- 0.9 h and the time for vascular anastomosis was 32 +/- 6 min. The recipients received ATG, azathioprine, prednisone and delayed administration of cyclosporin A. The patients were followed for 12-98 (median 41) months and showed good graft function (inulin clearance 63-100 ml/min/1.73 m2); only one child with recurrent haemolytic uraemic syndrome lost his graft three months post-transplantation and died after he had received a second graft. None of the recipients required post-transplant dialysis; arterial hypertension involved four children and was related to graft artery stenosis in two. Growth improved by 0.24 +/- 0.48 SD score of height per year.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)