The 1994 annual report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study.

The North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS) is a research effort that was organized and initiated in 1987. The following manuscript is the 1994 NAPRTCS annual report which has summarized data that has been voluntarily contributed by 83 centers. The report includes data on 3,183 patients who have undergone a total of 3,445 renal transplants between 1 January 1987 and 18 February 1994 when the data set was closed. The report also contains data on 1,611 independent courses of dialysis which were initiated between 1 January 1992 and 18 February 1994. This report is meant to update the previous NAPRTCS annual reports as well as demonstrate how the NAPRTCS database has changed clinical practice since its inception. There have been 855 graft failures among the 3,438 transplants. Due to the maturing of the database, chronic rejection now accounts for 34% of graft failures which have occurred over the last year. Graft failure was increased in recipients if the recipients were < 2 years of age, of the black race, or had received five or more prior transfusions. Early treatment with antithymocyte globulin/antilymphocyte globulin/OKT3 was associated with increased graft survival. Catch-up growth post transplant was only seen in the youngest patients (< 6 years of age). Those patients > 6 years did not have catch-up growth post transplant. Overall graft survival has improved markedly since the inception of this study. The dialysis database is just maturing and the data confirm that growth on dialysis continues to be very poor. The 1994 annual report of NAPRTCS extends previous findings of this valuable database. It is gratifying to know that early findings of NAPRTCS have led to changes in therapy which have led to improvement in the care of these very special children.