ABSTRACT
Solid organ transplantation has made remarkable progress over the past three decades, evolving from a fascinating experiment in human immunobiology into the most effective means of rehabilitating patients with end-stage organ dysfunction of a variety of types. Today, at the best transplant centers, more than 90% long-term patient and allograft survival are being achieved following kidney, heart, and liver transplantation, with about 75% of lung-transplant recipients achieving these positive results. Because of these successes, the transplant community has been encouraged to ‘‘extend the envelope,’’ by bringing new forms of transplantation to the care of affected individuals. For example, in a number of transplant centers, bowel transplantation and transplantation of needed organs into patients with AIDS are now being explored in a responsible fashion (1-3).
