Cyclosporine as primary therapy for A-matched living related donor kidney graft recipients.

Between 1981-87, 48 HLA identical sibling graft recipients were allocated to one of three treatment groups: Group I-15 patients Aza and Pred; Group II-12 CyA alone; Group III-21 CyA and steroids. Only one patient died from a fatal hereditary disease. Graft survival was 100% at one year in all groups and at three years was 86% for Aza, 94% for CyA alone and 100% for CyA and steroids. Rejection episodes occurred in 50% of Aza patients versus 18% in the CyA groups. However 55% of CyA patients require anti-hypertensives versus 20% of Aza recipients, and 12% of CyA patients were switched because of drug toxicity. In a previous study of 36 Aza treated A-matched patients, five of eight losses occurred after the first 5 years--most related to long term effects of immunosuppression. We may have to wait for longer follow-up before drawing conclusions regarding the use of CyA in identically matched living related recipients.