Renal transplantation in children: a report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study

Children who receive a donated kidney from a living relative may be more likely to have a successful graft than those who receive the organ from a cadaver. A review of data on 1,667 kidney transplants from 73 pediatric transplantation centers in the US and Canada between 1987 and 1990 found that the most common causes of kidney failure requiring a transplant in children were congenital malformations of the kidneys and urinary tract and focal glomerulosclerosis. One year after transplantation, graft survival was 89% in the children who received a relative's kidney compared to 74% in those who received a cadaver's kidney. At three years, graft survival was 80% in children who received a relative's kidney and 62% in those who received a cadaver's kidney. At the time of the transplant, all the children were below the standard height for their age, and only the children younger than five years of age grew substantially after the transplant. Seventy-nine children died after receiving the transplant, and almost half died from infection.