Pretreatment of cadaver donors with methylprednisolone in human renal allografts.

Fifty cadaveric kidney donors were randomly allocated to two groups. Group 1 received 5 grams of intravenously administered methylprednisolone two to four hours prior to organ harvesting after the pronouncement of brain death. Group 2, which served as the control group, received no pretreatment. Of 100 kidneys harvested, 16 were discarded for various reasons, and 84 were transplanted and were available for evaluation, 40 from the pretreatment group and 44 from the control group. The transplant centers using these kidneys were unaware of the status of the kidney they received, that is, whether it was from a pretreated or a control group. The two groups of kidneys, pretreated and control, did not differ according to the length of warm or cold ischemia time or presence of preformed cytotoxic antibodies. The difference in graft failure between the two groups at three months was insignificant, even when the two groups were compared according to the method of preservation used.