With the advent of more potent and well-tolerated immunosuppressive regimens and further improvements in short-term graft survival, renal transplantation remains the treatment of choice for most pts with end-stage renal disease. Results are best with living-related transplantation, in part because of optimized tissue matching and in part because waiting time and ischemic time can be minimized; ideally, these pts are transplanted prior to the onset of symptomatic uremia or indications for dialysis. Transplant centers now also perform living-unrelated donor (e.g., spousal) transplants, often in “chains” involving multiple donors to optimize tissue matching. Graft survival in these cases is far superior to that observed with deceased donor transplants, although less favorable than with living-related transplants.

In 2011, there were 55,371 active adult candidates on the waiting list for deceased-donor kidneys, and less than 18,000 pts were transplanted. This imbalance is set to worsen over the coming years with the predicted increased rates of obesity and diabetes worldwide. In an attempt to increase utilization of deceased-donor kidneys and reduce discard rates of organs, criteria for the use of so-called expanded criteria donor (ECD) kidneys and kidneys from donors after cardiac death (DCD) have been developed. ECD kidneys are usually used for older pts who are expected to fare less well on dialysis.

Factors that influence graft survival are outlined in Table 141-1. Pretransplant blood transfusion should be avoided, so as to reduce the likelihood of sensitization to incompatible HLA antigens; if transfusion is necessary, leukocyte-reduced irradiated blood is preferred. Contraindications to renal transplantation are outlined in Table 141-2. Overall, the current standard of care is that the pt should have >5 years of life expectancy to be eligible for a renal transplant, since the benefits of transplantation are only realized after a perioperative period in which the mortality rate is higher than in comparable pts on dialysis.