Acceptability and Procurement of Cadaver Kidneys

Abstract

In most centers, cadaver kidneys are increasingly being used as a source of renal allograft. The use of a cadaver kidney has the advantage that it does not require operating on a living donor, with all its attendant risks, to obtain a normal kidney. Since the results with well-matched, living related donors are superior to those obtained with cadaver kidneys, possible living related donors must first be carefully sought for and evaluated. If a suitable living related donor is not available, patients with irreversible chronic renal failure must then be considered for cadaveric renal transplantation. But in addition to having poorer graft survival, cadaveric transplantation has other disadvantages. In the majority of the cadaver transplants, there is almost always a period of acute tubular necrosis, with the inevitable uncertainty as to whether this period is really the result of this condition or rejection.