Single Kidney Transplants from Young Donors Effective

In the August publication of The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, researchers reported that transplanting a single kidney from a young deceased donor is sufficient in maintaining health in an adult with kidney failure.

In most transplant centers, the kidneys of very young deceased donors are transplanted together into one patient. According to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), a single kidney from a very young deceased donor maintains the health of an adult with kidney failure.

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The researchers' study included all 79 adults who were transplanted at the Tulane Abdominal Transplant Institute with single pediatric kidneys from deceased donors aged 10 years or less between January 1996 and June 2007. Physicians transplanted a single pediatric kidney if it was healthy enough for splitting and the recipient consented. Half of the adults received single pediatric kidneys from donors less than five years of age. The other half received single kidneys from donors aged five to 10 years.

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Patients in the two groups experienced similar rates of kidney rejection and delayed kidney function. In both groups, kidney function improved dramatically in the first year after transplant, and it continued to improve into the third year. Furthermore, patients in the two groups lived a similar length of time. The youngest donor in the study was a nine-month old female; both of her donated kidneys remain healthy more than six years post-transplantation into two different recipients.

The article is saying that based on their findings, using a single kidney from very young diseased donors are able to sustain good health in adults. Often, when the donor is of very young age, both kidneys are transplanted into adult recipients.

This report contradicts previous studies where it has been noticed that adults given single kidneys from very young donors produce more complications compared the those from adult donors.

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