Successful steroid withdrawal half a year after kidney transplantation.

We report two kidney transplant recipients with successful steroid withdrawal. They are living related donor transplant recipients. The first patient, a 37-year-old female, received the kidney from her HLA identical father. The second patient, a 44-year-old man, received the kidney from his HLA 1 haploidentical brother. Both patients were maintained on triple immunosuppressive drug therapy prior to withdrawal of steroid and subsequently were maintained on cyclosporine and azathioprine or mizoribine. Acute rejection occurred within the first 1 month and was treated with steroid bolus therapy successfully in both cases. The time of steroid withdrawal after transplantation was 6.5 months in the first patient and 5 months in the second patient. After steroid withdrawal their graft function remained stable and the graft specimens obtained by biopsy 8 months after withdrawal showed no signs of rejection; no side effects of steroid appeared. These results suggest that steroid withdrawal half a year after transplantation can be accomplished without jeopardizing graft function in selected living related donor transplant recipients.