Kidney Transplantation in Children

This review discusses unique aspects of kidney transplantation in children that necessitate specialized approaches and have resulted in clinical advances so that kidney transplantations in young children have higher success rates than in any other age group. Since the first successful kidney transplantation in 1954, 1 kidney transplantation has become the best treatment for adult patients with kidney failure. However, early pediatric kidney transplantation was complicated by technical, immunologic, and logistic problems, all leading to worse patient and graft survival among children than had been observed among adults. Over the past 15 years, a number of advances have greatly improved patient and graft survival among children with kidney transplants. 2 , 3 Some aspects of clinical kidney transplantation are similar in children and adults. The immunosuppressive medications and regimens used are similar, creatinine is the major serum biomarker, acute rejection . . .