ABSTRACT
Introduction Following the first successful renal transplant operation, performed in the USA in 1954, renal transplantation has emerged as the optimal treatment for almost all patients with end-stage renal disease. Not only does transplantation improve quality of life and end dependence on dialysis, it also appears to confer a significant survival benefit. One study showed that recipients of cadaveric kidney transplants benefited from an increase in predicted life expectancy of 10 years compared with similar patients remaining on the transplant waiting list. Renal transplantation is also cost-effective, providing a much less expensive alternative to long-term dialysis. This procedure has become so successful that, in the UK a year after surgery, 94% of living donor transplants and 87% of cadaveric transplants are still functioning well, these figures falling to approximately 70% and 60%, respectively, at 10 years.
