Renal transplantation and chronic dialysis in children and adolescents: the 1993 annual report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study

The 1993 North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study annual report summarizes data voluntarily contributed by 82 participating centers on 3,223 pediatric patients who received 2,819 renal transplants from January 1987 through January 1993 and 999 independent courses of dialysis from January 1992 through January 1993. In addition to updating information regarding trends and outcomes in pediatric renal transplantation presented in previous annual reports, 1st-year registry data are presented regarding current practices and trends in chronic dialysis therapy for children and adolescents in North America. Living donor graft (LDG) survival rate was 90% at 1 years 85% at 2 years and 75% at 5 years post transplant. Cadaver graft (CG) survival rates were 76%, 71% and 62% at 1, 2 and 5 years post transplant, respectively. Overall mortality post transplantation continues to be low (CG 6.8%, LDG 4%), mortality remains high in young infants. The dialysis cohort was generally younger than the transplantation cohort. In all age groups, peritoneal dialysis was utilized in the majority of pediatric patients and the overall incidence of peritonitis was 1 episode per 8.2 patient months. External percutaneous catheters were utilized as the predominant chronic hemodialysis access in the study, and access site infections ranged from 6.9% at 1 month to 13.5% at 6 months.