Further observations on renal transplants in man from cadaveric donors.

Survival after renal transplantation in man: an interim report on 54 consecutive transplants.

“…In the past three years, however, results have improved. Straffon et al (1965), Mowbray et al (1965), Hume et al (1966), and Kincaid-Smith et al (1967) reported on their experience over the preceding two years, in which 20 patients out of 24 with cadaveric renal transplants were surviving with function in the grafted kidneys. Five out of seven survivals were more than one year and 11 out of 16 more than six months after operation.…”

“…An attempt was made to see all patients every three months in Cambridge, but one patient refused to come and six live abroad. If inexorable rejection occurred in spite of maximal immunosuppressive therapy the transplant was removed and the patient returned to intermittent dialysis for a minimum of 40 days (Hume et al, 1966), when a second transplant was considered. The most satisfactory cases were discharged from hospital within six weeks of surgery, but the average postoperative period in hospital was nine weeks, with a range of six weeks to four and a half months.…”

Perspectives in Organ Transplantation

“…Immunosuppression was with total body radiation, a technique of host conditioning which has been replaced in most centers by drug therapy. In contrast, successes in the succeeding years have been reported by many authors [6,18,27,35,36,45,55,69,101].In this report, several issues will be reviewed on the basis of our earlier experience with human renal transplantation. The questions to be examined in distant retrospect concern the homograft rejection seen after clinical renal transplantation and the measures necessary to control and reverse this process; the life expectancy of patients brought through early rejection episodes; the effect of prospective histocompatibility matching upon survival; and the early and delayed influence of thymectomy upon kidney transplant function.…”

“…Immunosuppression was with total body radiation, a technique of host conditioning which has been replaced in most centers by drug therapy. In contrast, successes in the succeeding years have been reported by many authors [6,18,27,35,36,45,55,69,101].…”

“…Other groups with much more extensive experience in cadaveric transplantation have repeatedly expressed optimism about the bright future of this approach [6,27,35,36,45]. It is a point of view with which few would disagree especially since the prospects of transplanting livers, lungs, and hearts will depend upon the use of cadaveric organs.…”