Pretreatment with blood transfusions in primary kidney transplantation

Since 1977 a deliberate pretransplant transfusion protocol consisting of two units of leucocyte poor blood given minimum 6 weeks prior to transplantation was applied to earlier not transfused recipients of primary renal transplants in Gothenburg. Graft loss due to rejection at 6 months was 17% and 8% in cadaver and one shared HLA-haplotype living donor recipients, respectively. These results were very much superior to those earlier obtained in not transfused recipients in this centre. The risk of presensitization seemed low.