Improving success rates of kidney transplantation
Terasaki, P.I.; Perdue, S.T.; Sasaki, N.; Mickey, M.R.; Whitby, L.
JAMA 250(8): 1065-1068
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0098-7484 PMID: 6348321 Document Number: 212471
One-year patient survival rates have improved remarkably, from 84% in 1968 to 97% in 1980 for parental donor grafts, and from 65% to 90% for cadaver donor grafts. In contrast, graft survival rates showed a steady decline from 1968 to 1975 but subsequently improved at a rate of 2.4% per year for parent donor transplants and 2.7% per year for cadaver donor transplants. During this period of improving survival rates, the pretransplant transfusion exposure rate increased from 52% in 1977 to 91% by 1981. We conclude that transplantation has now reached a new level of acceptability as a clinical treatment modality and that blood transfusion has produced its effect on graft survival when results are disseminated over a large number of transplant centers.