Renal transplantation in patients with insulin requiring diabetes and renal failure.

During a six year period twelve patients with insulin dependent diabetes and end-stage renal failure received cadaveric kidney grafts. Eleven of the patients have previous to this been hemodialysed, one patient was transplanted before hemodialysis was necessary. The cumulative two year survival was thirty-seven per cent for the patients, and twenty-nine per cent for the kidney grafts. The average time of observation was eleven months, the motality was fifty per cent. The causes of death were acute myocardial infarction in two cases, sepsis in two cases, severe hypoglycemia in one case and unexpected sudden death in one case. The most prominent problems in the treatment of the diabetic patients after the renal transplantation were difficulties in the regulation of the diabetes, rejections, infections, cardiac failure and aggravation in pre-existing hypertension.