Prognostic factors at the time of renal retransplantation

One hundred and eighty-two patients with a second cadaver (CD) transplant performed during 1969-80 showed similar patient and graft survival to that of 535 recipients of first CD grafts. Loss of the first graft after 12 months resulted in a significantly higher second graft survival (GS II) than loss in early acute rejection within three months, 71 per cent vs 34 per cent at one year (p less than 0.01). A high frequency of presensitised patients was observed (53%) which negatively influenced the GS II, at one year 55 per cent vs 40 per cent for patients without and with antibodies (p less than 0.01). A good HLA-A, B match and absence of antibodies positively influenced GS II. Blood transfusions prior to the first transplantation did not influence survival of the second graft.