Cadaveric renal transplantation in the cyclosporine and OKT3 eras.

With advances in clinical immunosuppression, results in organ transplantation continue to improve. During a 52-month period, 507 cadaver renal transplants were performed, including 435 primary and 72 nonprimary transplants. All patients were managed with quadruple immunosuppression (prednisone, azathioprine, sequential MALG and cyclosporine). Our experience is divided into pre-OKT3 (n = 228) and OKT3 (n = 279) eras. All kidneys were harvested locally and preserved with pulsatile machine perfusion. The mean duration of preservation was 30.1 hours, with an organ utilization rate of 98.1%. The preservation-related dialysis rate was 13.6%, and primary nonfunction occurred in 8 kidneys (1.6%). Actuarial patient survival in primary and secondary transplant recipients was 90% at 3 years. Overall primary graft survival was 81.6% and nonprimary graft survival, 61.1%. However, the current OKT3 era is characterized by improved patient survival (98% vs 90%, p = 0.001) and primary graft survival (91% vs 80%, p = 0.002) at 1 year when compared with the previous era. Forty-nine patients have received OKT3 therapy, with 31 grafts (63.3%) successfully rescued. Cadaveric renal transplantation with machine preservation, quadruple therapy, and OKT3 rescue is associated with excellent early graft function, reduced acute rejection, and improved patient and allograft survival, even in high-risk recipients.