Abstract
These results indicate that renal homotransplantation can be an effective way of treating patients with terminal uremia. Even during the developmental period of this study the majority of recipient patients achieved a high degree of social and vocational rehabilitation–and if related donors were used the salvage rate 21 months or longer after operation is still 65%. Nevertheless, the procedure is still experimental. The projected fate of patients in whom there is still evidence of low-grade host versus graft activity is unknown. The role of thymectomy or splenectomy in promoting acceptance of the homografts is not proven. Further work is required on the histocompatibility matching techniques. For the momeni. it would seem wisest to regard renal homotransplantation as an effective but incompletely characterized form of palliative therapy.