RESUMO
Background: Renal transplant is the best therapeutic alternative for chronic renal failure, although it is not exempt of risks. Aim: To report the survival of renal transplant recipients and grafts and the main complications at a public hospital in Chile. Patients and methods: This is a non experimental, open historical cohort study, with reposition of the first 100 transplants in 94 patients, performed at the Carlos van Buren Hospital between 1984 and 1998. Seventy grafts came from cadaveric donors and 30 from live donors. As immunosuppressive therapy, prednisone + azathioprine was used in 48 transplants and the same regimen plus cyclosporine in 52. Results: Mean age of recipients was 36 ñ 23 years old. Ten years actuarial survival of patients was 80.5 percent in transplants from cadaveric donors and 86 percent in transplants from live donors. Ten years graft survival was 57.5 percent in transplants from cadaveric donors and 42 percent in transplants from live donors. The period in which the transplant was performed (first or second half of the observation period), type of donor, HLA B-DR compatibility and sensitization ( percent PRA) had no effect on survival. Twenty five subjects lost their graft, 12 due to acute steroid resistant rejection, 10 due to chronic graft nephropathy and three due to renal artery thrombosis. Fifteen subjects died with a functioning graft, 10 due to infections, two due to an acute myocardial infarction, two due to an acute pancreatitis and one due to a brain tumor. Conclusions: Survival of grafts and renal transplant recipients was not influenced by the type of donor, period of transplantation and immune variables. Main causes of recipient death were infections and the main cause of graft failure was acute rejection