[Present status and perspectives of kidney transplantation]

The kidney transplantation and the dialysis are established procedures in the treatment of patients with renal insufficiency. The indication for kidney transplantation could be enlarged by new recognitions of immunology and by the introduction of new immunosuppressive medicaments with simultaneous improvement of the results of the transplantations during the last ten years. The urgently necessary increase of the frequency of transplantation by the supply of donor kidneys must be the task of the next years.