RESEARCH ARTICLE


Progress in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation



Jodi M. Smith1, *, Vikas R. Dharnidharka2
1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
2 Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA


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Creative Commons License
© Smith and Dharnidharka; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, 4800 Sand Point Way NE, OC.9.820, Seattle, WA 98105, USA; Tel: (206) 987-2524; Fax: (206) 987-2636; E-mail: jodi.smith@seattlechildrens.org


Abstract

Significant progress has been made in pediatric kidney transplantation. Advances in immunosuppression have dramatically decreased rates of acute rejection leading to improved short term graft survival but similar improvements in long term graft survival remain elusive. Changes in allocation policy provide the pediatric population with timely access to transplant but there remains concern about the impact of less HLA matching and a decrease in living donors. This report presents data from North America on these successes and the ongoing challenges that face the pediatric transplant community.

Keywords: Graft survival, immunosuppression, patient survival, pediatric kidney transplant.