Blood transfusion and human renal transplantation

Analysis of 156 first cadaver-kidney transplants performed in one transplantation center revealed a better graft survival in the group of transfused patients compared to the non-transfused patients. The degree of statistical significance between the groups improved with increasing number of pre-transplant blood transfusions. Pregnancy had no influence on graft survival. As could be expected the frequency of lymphocytotoxic antibodies before transplantation increased with increasing number of blood transfusions. However, lymphocytotoxic antibodies seemed not to influence graft survival.