[Prolonged renal graft survival after repeated blood transfusions (author's transl)]

In order to investigate the influence of pretransplant blood transfusions on renal graft survival, the results in 43 recipients with 10 or more transfusion (group A) were compared with those in 48 recipients with less than 10 or no transfusions (group B). In both groups cadaveric kidneys with mainly 3 or more mismatched histocompatibility antigens were transplanted. The incidence of preformed cytotoxic antibodies was similar in both groups (25.6% and 22.9%, respectively). The cumulative renal graft survival rate was significantly higher in the poly-transfused group: 85.6% +/- 6.1% and 73.4 +/- 7.9% after 1 and 2 years, respectively, in group A in comparison with 73.9 +/- 6.6% and 63.3 +/- 8.1% after 1 and 2 years respectively, in group B (Wilcoxon rank sum test: p less than 0.05). Severe renal rejection with a serum creatinine above 3 mg/100 ml was more frequently observed in group B than in group A. Enhancement due to blocking antibodies must be assumed as a possible explanation for the favourable effect of repeated pretransplant transfusions on graft survival rates.