Single-center experience of unrelated living-donor renal transplantation in the cyclosporine era.

Renal transplantation from the unrelated living-donor might be an alternative when the cadaveric or related donor is not available, because graft and patient survival rates are superior to those of kidneys from cadaveric donors and even comparable to those from related donors. Among the many factors that might contribute to these excellent results, we believe that the good quality of kidneys (lacking preservation or ischemic injury) is the most important one. In addition, our criteria for patient selection requiring well-matched HLA typing might partially contribute to our success. For the successful renal transplantation program using unrelated-living donors, high ethical standards, accumulated experience from living-related donor transplantation, and dedicated professionalism are strongly recommended.