Background: En bloc kidneys from pediatric donors are regarded as questionable with respect to the safety and quality of the transplant outcome. Therefore, we retrospectively studied graft outcome and graft function of our 56 en bloc kidneys transplanted in paraaortal position between 1992 and 1999.
Methods: Graft outcome of en bloc kidneys (group A) was compared with graft outcome of single cadaveric adult donor kidneys (group B). Matched pairs were generated regarding HLA-missmatch, cold ischemic time, recipient age, body mass index, and systolic arterial blood pressure.
Results: Allograft survival rates of pediatric en bloc kidneys at 1, 3, and 5 years were significantly lower (group A: 78, 70, 70% vs. group B: 92, 92, 81%, P<0.05). Lower survival rate was caused by a higher number of graft losses in the early postoperative period (group A: 21% vs. group B: 4%, P<0.01) due to vascular complications. Main risk factor for graft loss was donor age of less than 12 months. Five years after transplantation serum creatinine of pediatric en bloc kidneys was significantly better than of adult kidneys (0.9+/-0.06 vs. 1.8+/-0.2 mg/dl, P<0.001).
Conclusion: En bloc kidneys show a high percentage of graft survival with excellent long-term graft function. However, the early postoperative period carries a higher risk of graft loss in very young donors due to vascular complications. In the face of donor shortage en bloc kidneys from pediatric donors can successfully be transplanted in a paraaortal position.