The use of pediatric cadaver kidneys in renal transplantation (Experience with 97 cases and comparison with adult kidneys)

Pediatric cadaver donors are an important pool of kidneys for human allotransplantation. Experiences with 97 transplantations of pediatric cadaveric kidneys (age: 4 months to 15 years) and comparison with 230 transplantations of adult kidneys (age: 16–25 and 40–68 years) are presented. The cumulative patient survival was similar in both groups, however, the graft survival was significantly lower in the pediatric donor group (p<0.05). This difference was established almost exclusively within the first 3 months after transplantation. In this group the percentage of technical complications in the first month was higher (13.4%) than in the adult kidney group (6.5%). The analysis of the whole pool of harvested kidneys shows a significantly higher rate of transplanted kidneys in the pediatric group (61%) as compared with the adult group (44.7%). In both groups the mode of arterial vascular anastomosis (end-to-end or end-to-side) does not influence the graft survival.Further investigations on pediatric donor kidneys are necessary. The utilization of pediatric cadaveric kidneys for transplantation should be increased because 20–25% of all potential kidney donors are younger than 15 years.