Individualization of Immunosuppressive Therapy after Solid Organ Transplantation

Abstract

When an individual’s kidneys fail, there are three treatment options: hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplantation. A successful kidney transplantation results in the best patient survival and a better quality of life compared to the two other treatment modalities. Kidney transplantation is therefore the preferred therapy for renal failure. The first deceased donor kidney transplantation in the United States was performed in 1950 by Lawler and colleagues on Ruth Tucker, a 44-year-old woman with polycystic kidney disease. Although the kidney transplant was rejected ten months later because no immunosuppressive therapy was available at the time, the intervening time allowed Tucker’s remaining native kidney (it was an orthotopic transplantation) to recover and she lived for another five years. At the same time in France, Küss, Hamburger, and others also performed a number of kidney transplantations.