Management of highly sensitized patients: capitol medical center experience.

Highly sensitized patients with elevated anti-HLA antibodies have difficulty to get a living donor due to cross-match positivity and longer waiting times for cadaveric donor transplantation. In this regard, several studies have been made to abrogate cross-match positivity for a possible successful kidney transplantation. In this article, we report our experience, using a desensitization protocol with Rituximab monoclonal antibody complemented with intravenous immunoglubulin and/or plasmapheresis, to prepare highly sensitized patients for successful kidney transplantation.