Current prospects for renal transplantation in veterinary practice

In dogs, the surgical techniques and other technical considerations for the transplantation of most tissues and organs in the body are well established. The last remaining obstacle to uniformly safe and successful organ transplantation is the immune response to foreign tissue antigen and our present inability to completely suppress this response in a specific and safe manner. Immunosuppressive techniques currently available are largely non-specific and unfortunately cause many potentially fatal side effects. As a result graft recipients must be constantly monitored so that enough immunosuppressive treatment is given to prevent rejection but not so much that the recipient develops life threatening complications. The enormous cost and the services necessary to provide this attention in view of the relatively poor survival rates of tissue and organ grafts in dogs will continue to prevent organ transplantation becoming a reality in veterinary practice. Hopefully future advances in tissue-typing and the induction of specific immunological adaption in dogs by ensuring consistently safe and successful transplantation will ead to minimal postoperative attention.