Use of the donor bladder trigone to facilitate pediatric en bloc kidney transplantation

Abstract

We performed three cases of donor bladder trigone facilitated transplantation using pediatric en bloc kidneys into adult recipients. The donors were aged 11, 21, and 23 months; two of the donors were male, and the other was a female. In each case, the donor bladder was removed and the trigone was fashioned into a patch that contained both ureters, which was attached to the recipient anterior bladder wall. The recipients of the two male donor transplants healed and have normal voiding with no evidence of vesico-ureteral reflux. At 14 and 12 months, they have a creatinine of 1.2 and 1.0 mg/dL. The recipient of the female donor transplant developed a pelvic abscess, which necessitated reconstruction of the donor ureters and patch. She is now nine months with a creatinine of 1.2 mg/dL and voiding well. The use of the donor bladder trigone to facilitate pediatric en bloc transplantation can be carried out safely using the male donor urinary tract. However, the use of a female donor for this procedure may be a special circumstance requiring increased attention to sterilize the small donor introitus and avoiding devascularization of the bladder trigone that is adherent to the anterior vaginal wall.