Renal transplantation at the University of Lyon

Over the last 23 years, progress in renal transplantation has dramatically decreased mortality and transplant failures, especially during the first years following the transplant. Further improvement in immunosuppression or in induction of specific unresponsiveness should, in the future, limit the incidence of late failures. More experience in transplantation has led to reduced frequency and severity of most complications. This has resulted in acceptance of patients with risk factors such as old age or infancy, poor vascular status, hyperimmunization, or requirement for several transplants (kidney + pancreas, kidney + heart, kidney + liver, etc.). Optimum organ procurement facilities will be required to meet the increased demand for kidney transplants. It is hoped that this need will be stabilized when late transplant failures will become infrequent, thus decreasing the requirements for retransplantation.