Antilymphocyte globulin for the treatment of steroid non-responsive acute renal allograft rejection.

Antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) 30 mg/kg was administered daily i.v. for seven days to patients with renal transplants who were experiencing severe acute rejection which had failed to respond to large doses of i.v. methylprednisolone. Twenty-eight of the thirty-three patients had already recommenced hemodialysis when the treatment was started. Seventeen kidney transplants recovered and sixteen of these continue to function four to thirty months later. Such recovery was seen only twice in a comparable group of patients not given ALG.