High Survival Rates of Kidney Transplants from Spousal and Living Unrelated Donors

Evidence of unexpectedly high rates of survival of kidney grafts from spouses and other living unrelated donors in patients with end-stage renal disease has been mounting in recent years. 1 – 9 Although most transplants from living unrelated donors are mismatched for HLA antigens, the survival rates of these grafts are higher than those of similarly mismatched cadaveric grafts. 10 As a result, increasing numbers of transplantations involving grafts from living unrelated donors have been performed recently in the United States. In this report, we analyze the factors that contribute to the high success rate of grafts from unrelated donors. Methods Kaplan–Meier curves . . .