Renal transplantation from related live donors. Results and survival]

We report a retrospective study of 91 renal transplants from related live donors carried out at the Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunis, between 1986 and 1993. There were 27 HLA-identical and 64 semi-identical. Classical immunosuppression based upon corticosteroids and azathioprine was used in the majority of cases. Surgical complications occurred in 15.4% of cases. 56% of patients had at least one acute rejection attack. There were 4 deaths, 3 related to infection and one to septic arterial rupture. Return to hemodialysis was related to chronic rejection in 5 cases and to recurrence of the initial nephropathy in one case. 5-year actuarial survival was 94% for recipients and 81% for grafts. In this series, acute rejection had no negative influence on graft survival and the difference between graft survival between HLA-identical and semi-identical patients was not statistically significant.