Progress in pediatric kidney transplantation

This review summarizes the focus shift from ischemia-reperfusion injury and avoidance of rejection to long-term outcome after pediatric renal transplantation over the past decade. Although there has been excellent 1-year graft and patient survival, low rejection rates can be achieved with modern immunosuppression after pediatric renal transplantation, and patient survival is improved substantially in comparison with dialysis, pediatric renal transplant recipients experience a high prevalence of infections, malignancies, medication side effects, nonadherence, and, most importantly, cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Additional challenges occur because of a high prevalence of obesity after transplantation and vascular calcifications. There is also in an underappreciation of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in transplant recipients. The etiology of CKD is multifactorial and can affect graft and patient survival. The rigors of treatment for CKD are less compared with CKD in nontransplant recipients. Almost all immunosuppressive drugs are implicated with a risk of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetogenicity, all of which contribute to cardiovascular morbidity. Corticosteroids exhibit the most substantial risk and also stunt growth. Effective new treatment protocols such as the recent European Tacrolimus and WIthdrawal of STeroids (TWIST) study with rapid steroid withdrawal after 5 days provide promising results without increasing the rejection risk. The shift in focus on long-term complications allows for improved graft outcome. Side effects of immunosuppressive medications require continued attention to further improve long-term outcomes.