Pediatric en bloc kidney transplantation into pediatric recipients: the French experience

Chronic shortage of available donor organs has led to re-evaluation of the use of en bloc kidney transplants. Although excellent results have been reported in adult patients, experience in pediatric patients remains limited because of potential early complications and poor long-term graft outcome. We report 14 pediatric en bloc renal transplantations into 14 pediatric recipients, performed between 1990 and 2007 in France. We retrospectively analyzed demographic data, postoperative complications, and graft function with a median follow-up of five yr. Donor age ranged from four to 54 months. Complications were vascular graft thrombosis in four patients, leading to graft loss in two cases, and to excellent long-term graft function in the two others. Two hemorrhagic complications resulted in death in one case and in graft loss in the other. Six acute rejection episodes occurred in four patients. Median glomerular filtration rate at three months, one, five, and 10 yr was 90.8, 106, 87.8, and 66.1 mL/1.73 m(2) /min. We believe that en bloc transplantation may be an option for children with end-stage kidney disease.