Renal transplantation, past, present and future.

In the absence of immunosuppression, renal transplantation was sporadically and unsuccessfully performed during the first half of this century. Over the past 40 years, immunosuppressive drug regimens have evolved greatly and transformed solid-organ transplantation into a routine clinical procedure with a 1-year graft survival between 80% and 90%. The original immunosuppressive scheme was based on the administration of glucocorticoids and azathioprine.

Pediatric renal transplantation from the early 1970's through the cyclosporine years at Policlinico University Hospital of Milan.

In our 27 years' experience, 268 kidney transplantations have been carried out in 243 patients, who were under age 18 at the time of operation. Most (84.7%) received a cadaver donor graft.

The clinical status of cadaveric renal transplant patients treated for 10 year with cyclosporine therapy.

In this paper we assessed the clinical status of 150 cadaveric renal transplant patients who received cyclosporine without interruption for 10 yr. The mean creatinine clearance was 59.2 +/- 15.