Living Donor Renal Transplantation, 1976 - 2003: The Mansoura Experience

Between March 1976 and December 2004, 1690 consecutive allogenic living donor renal transplants were carried out at Mansoura, Egypt. We herewith report on 1600 transplants that had a minimum follow-up period of one year. The overall graft survival rates were 76% and 52% at five and 10-years respectively. The corresponding patient survival rates were respectively 86% and 71%. The projected half-life was 10.7 years for grafts and 18.2 years for patients. Predictors for graft outcome were classified as pre-transplant variables, technical factors or post-transplant predictors. Among the long list of these variables, factors that had a significant impact on outcome by univariate analysis included donor s and recipient s age, donor-recipient consanguinity, HLA-A, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) markers, ischemia time, primary immunosuppression, ad juvant therapy, total steroid dose within the first three months, number of acute rejection episodes, time to onset of diuresis, hypertension post-transplant, serum creatinine at one year and at last follow-up besides chronic rejection. Only five factors sustained their significance by multivariate analysis: they included recipient s age, primary immunosuppression, post-transplant hypertension and serum creatinine at one year and last follow-up. Some specific complications encountered among the recipients such as hemolytic anemia, post-transplant diabetes mellitus, bone complications, malignancy, erectile dysfunction and surgical complications are discussed. In conclusion, we hope to start the cadaveric donor transplant program soon in our unit. Also, the ambition concerning the transplantation field in the new millennium is to overcome xenotransplantation barriers and to induce immunologic tolerance with neither rejection nor immunosuppression.