Twenty years of renal transplantation in children

Two hundred and sixty-eight renal transplant operations were done in 244 children over the past 20 years. The donors were parents in 229 cases, living relatives in another 1 3 eases, and cadavers in the remaining 26 cases. There were 242 first grafts, 22 second grafts, and 4 third grafts. The initial 130 grafts were carried out with conventional immunosuppressive regimens and the subsequent 1 38 were done using immunosuppression including cyclosporin-A. In January 1995, 186 recipients (76.2%) were alive with functioning grafts, 33 (1 3.5%) were alive on dialyses, and 25 (10.2%) were dead. The management results in terms of patient and graft survival, as well as the causes of graft failure and patient death are described.