Renal transplantation in pediatric patients.

Thirty-five transplants have been performed in 29 children, 1 week to 16 years old. Of these patients 79 per cent are surviving from 9 months to 14 years post-transplantation. Eighteen of these patients have required different surgical procedures for transplantation than adult patients. Immunosuppressive therapy has been essentially the same as in adult patients. A striking difference between the living related donor and the cadaver donor transplant functional survival as seen in this series is unexplained at the present time. Linear growth has been good in those children who have required minimal doses of corticosteroids to maintain adequate renal function.