Orthotopic kidney transplantation in the rat with non-splinted end-to-end ureteric anastomosis: details of a technique.

A detailed description is presented of an improved technique of orthotopic rat kidney transplantation with end-to-end anastomoses of the renal vessels, non-splinted end-to-end ureteric anastomosis and simultaneous bilateral nephrectomy. Forty-four consecutive transplantations are analysed. No failure due to complications of the vascular anastomoses occurred. The ureteric anastomoses were followed by stenosis in only two cases (5%), one of which was reconstructed. The operation times for the vascular anastomoses were 16-24 min, with an average of 20 min, and for complete transplantation 50 min. Therefore, our method seems to be less time consuming than other common techniques of renal transplantation. The technique described has produced a success rate of 95% and guarantees a standardised and reproducible organ quality.