Renal Transplantation for the Nephrologist: Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: What Did We Learn During the 1980s? What Should We Learn During the 1990s?

Abstract

.l S WE ENTER the opening years of the new ftdecade, living donor transplantation appears to be alive and doing well. In 1989, approximately 1,900 kidneys from living donors were transplanted in the United States, a number that accounts for 21 % of all kidney transplants performed.! In the early years of the past decade (1980 to 1982), the number of living donor kidney transplantations grew by 30 % to 40 % each year, a rate that was about twice as high as the rate for total kidney transplantations.! Although the later years of the 1980s saw a leveling off in the numbers of both living-related and cadaveric transplants, there has certainly not been a downward trend in the numbers of living donor transplants.! Apparently, for health care professionals, chronic renal failure patients, and their potential donors, living-related kidney transplantation remains an important therapeutic alternative for the treatment of end-stage renal disease.