[Renal transplantation in Bologna]

From october '76 to march '79 at the Clinica Chirurgica I of the University of Bologna 50 renal graft have been performed with living donor in 8 cases and with cadaver donor in 42. In the living donor group there was one death for rejection and sepsis. The remaining 7 patients are all alive with normal renal function. Among the 42 patients with cadaver donor 6 died: 3 early (one for gastric hemorrage, one for necrosis of the ascending colon, and one for rejection) and 3 late (two following many rejection episodes and one for miocardial infarction). 6 more patients underwent transplantectomy (4 for acute and 2 for chronic rejection). The 27 remaining patients have normal renal function. The only early important surgical problem was one urinary fistula in the 15th postoperative day successfully reoperated. The major late surgical complication was a renal artery stenosis distal from the arterial anastomosis followed by difficult but effective surgical correction. The authors regret not having been able to use more than half of the possible cadaver donors for refusal of the relatives.