[Ability of cadaver kidneys to recover]

The scarcity in brain death donors may impose to use kidneys from non-heart-beating donors. In this paper, we have studied the injuries due to warm in situ ischemia, we also propose a pretreatment to protect the kidneys before removal. We propose the use of intra-aortic catheter for flushing by a femoral surgical approach. Functional studies of these kidneys have been performed during 2 h normothermic ex-vivo perfusion and the recognized good organs have been successful reimplanted after 24 h of cold ischemia.