Study of Cadaveric Kidney Transplantation: A Single Center Experience

To increase the number of cadaveric kidney transplants in Japan, it is necessary to proactively perform transplantation from marginal donors. We had the opportunity to frequently perform kidney transplantation from expanded-criteria donors (ECDs), and it is anticipated that there will be increases in the number of ECD kidney transplants.

In our institution, 18 patients underwent cadaveric kidney transplantation from January 2001 to December 2011. Sixteen of those patients were classified into 2 groups according to donation after brain death (BD) or after cardiac death (CD). We also classified donors as ECDs or standard-criteria donors (SCDs).

Kidney graft survival and engraftment were observed in all of the patients. Renal function at 1 year after transplantation was significantly better in the BD group than in the CD group. However, there was no significant difference between the groups in renal function at 3 and 5 years. Renal function at 1 and 3 years after transplantation was significantly better in the SCD group than in the ECD group, but there was no difference in renal function between the SDC and ECD groups at 5 years.

The results were good for all of the patients. There are many reports that graft survival rate at 3-5 years after transplantation from ECDs is poorer than from SCDs. However, no statistically significant difference was found in kidney function at ≥5 years between the ECD and SCD groups in our patients.