Kidney perfusion and preservation.

Kidney preservation, often for periods in excess of 24 hours, is currently required to allow tissue matching and preparation of the recipient before cadaveric renal transplantation. Both flushing with complex electrolyte solutions and storage in ice saline slush, and hypothermic perfusion are satisfactory techniques. In half of the recipients, despite agonal damage in the donor and the progressive metabolic disturbance during hypothermic storage, the kidneys function immediately after transplantation. In the remaining half, kidneys function after a period of one to three weeks of acute tubular necrosis.