Immunological aspects of clinical renal transplantation

Improved facilities for treating patients with end-stage renal failure have resulted in more elderly and debilitated patients being accepted for treatment. Renal transplantation is now the optimum form of treatment but organ procurement has failed to match clinical demand. Future developments may focus on further non-specific immunosuppressive agents. As one year survival rates for first cadaver allografts now exceed 85% in many units, the significance of new developments will be increasingly difficult to evaluate.