Renal transplantation in a Community Hospital

Eighty renal transplantations were performed at an urban community hospital over a ten-year period. Forty-two transplants were from living related donors and 38 from cadaver donors. The one-year rejection rate for cadaveric transplants was 35% and for transplants between parents and children, 31%, whereas only one of 21 (5%) transplants between siblings was rejected during the first year. These results compare favorably with those reported by others and appear to justify performance of kidney transplantation in the community hospital setting where large numbers of transplant surgeons and nephrologists are involved, and where the number of transplants never has exceeded 15 per year.