Prolonged survival of second human kidney transplants.

Rejection of kidney transplants in 264 patients, followed by retransplantation from cadaver donors, resulted in a 1-year survival rate of 51 +/- 3 percent (rate +/- standard error) as compared to 51 +/- 1 percent for first transplants. If the first transplant immunizes the patient or is rejected by immunologically responsive patients, second grafts into the same patients would be expected to be rejected at a higher rate. Only those reject who reject first grafts hyperacutely or between 1 to 3 months were found to have low second graft survival rates. Patients who rejected transplants after 3 months tended to have second transplant survival rates which were higher than their first graft survival rates.