A Single Center Experience of ABO Incompatible Kidney Transplantation / 대한이식학회지

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplantation (KT) is the optimal treatment for end stage renal disease. However, the relative shortage of organs for transplantation (from human leukocyte antigen- or ABO incompatible [ABOi] living donors) has led to ABOi KT as an accepted method to expand the pool of living kidney donors. To date, reports of the outcomes of ABOi KT are limited; therefore this study aims to evaluate the outcomes of ABOi KT in recipients. METHODS: We identified 45 patients who underwent live-donor ABOi KT between February 2007 and November 2011 at Maryknoll Medical Center. All of them were treated according to the scheduled protocol of plasmapheresis with low dose intravenous immunoglobulin, and low dose rituximab- or tacrolimus-based triple immunosuppressant regimens. Clinical parameters and the incidence of rejections in these patients were analyzed. RESULTS: We had three cases (6.6%) of biopsy-proven acute antibody-mediated rejections and one case (2.2%) of acute cellular rejection, all of which were successfully treated. The median follow-up duration was 20 months (range, 2~59). Antibody depletion was scheduled according to baseline anti-ABO antibody titer (tube method: median immunoglobulin G titer/immunoglobulin M titer 64 [range, 8~4,096]/16 [range, 2~256], respectively). Although there was no patient death, one patient lost his graft due to nonadherence to immunosuppressants. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis of ABOi KT has shown excellent and promising outcomes. These practices may therefore represent an acceptable option for expanding the pool of living kidney donors.

Review of the Pathology and Differential Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis

PURPOSE: Multiple methods are used to diagnose acute appendicitis. However, with the current practice, the negative laparotomy rate for acute appendicitis is from 15% up to 30%. This study was designed to evaluate various pathologies of the appendix and other intraabdominal organs of patients preoperatively diagnosed with acute appendicitis and to analyze clinically the difference between acute appendicitis and other intraabdominal inflammatory diseases. METHODS: We reviewed the pathologic reports of 833 patients who underwent laparotomies for acute appendicitis from January 1997 to December 2001. We grouped these patients by pathology. Group I included patients with a negative appendectomy and no other intraabdominal pathology, group II included those with lesions within the appendix, and group III, those with intraabdominal lesions other than in the appendix. We also analyzed the age, sex distributions, the typical symptoms of appendicitis, the duration of symptoms, fever, and leukocytosis of 100 patients with typical appendicitis by random sampling to find the clinical differences that existed between pelvic inflammatory disease and cecal diverticular disease presented as appendicitis. RESULTS: The diagnostic accuracy for acute appendicitis was 79.7%, and the negative appendectomy and negative laparotomy rates were 17.4% and 15.5%, respectively. The percents of patients in group I, II, and III were 10.4%, 82.6%, and 7.0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to consider the possibility of various pathologies during diagnostic and operative procedures for an acute abdomen, especially one occurring in the right lower quadrant.

Ureteroneocystostomy in Kidney Transplantation with Ureteral Duplication: A Case Report / 대한이식학회지

Duplication of the ureter occurs in 0.6 to 0.8% of adults and it is sometimes encountered in kidney transplantation. We experienced a case of duplicated uretor in kidney transplantaion, so we reports about it with a brief review of literature.