Clinical effect of allopurinol on preserved kidneys: a randomized double-blind study

We investigated the clinical posttransplant effect of allopurinol on preserved kidneys. Thirty-four paired kidneys from brain-dead cadavers were preserved by hypothermic pulsatile perfusion with silica gel fraction in separate cassettes. Allopurinol was added to one perfusate and omitted from the other in a randomized, double-blind, prospective plan. There was no difference in the short-term or long-term function of either group of kidneys. Allopurinol does not appear to have as consistent a beneficial effect on non-ischemically damaged human kidneys as that observed experimentally on ischemically damaged canine organs.