Pediatric renal transplantation: a single center experience

Renal transplantation is the treatment of choice for children with end-stage renal disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate retrospectively of our 37 pediatric renal allograft recipients, including 20 boys and 17 girls from July 2007 to August 2012. The overall mean age at transplantation was 12.16 ± 4.25 years. Three patients (8.1%) were transplanted preemptively; two were ABO-incompatible transplantations. The majority of recipients received living donor grafts (81%). The mean duration of follow-up was 25.10 ± 14.95 months. Seven acute rejection episodes were observed in 6 patients (16.2%). Eleven recipients developed serious viral infections: cytomegalovirus (n = 8), parvovirus (n = 2), BK virus (polyoma hominis 1) (n = 2), or Ebstein-Barr virus (n = 1). Three patients died; one from posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease, one from primary disease recurrence with infection, and one from sepsis. In conclusion, kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for end-stage renal disease. Infection was the major concern after this procedure.