Advances in maintenance immunosuppression over the past three decades have improved solid organ transplantation outcomes dramatically. Uninterrupted access to immunosuppression is paramount to minimize rejection and maintain allograft and patient survival. There is no standardized approach to maintenance immunosuppression management. Agents used vary based on transplanted organ, center‐specific protocol, provider expertise, insurance formularies, ability to cover co‐pays, recipient characteristics and tolerability. Published data reflects this heterogeneity. Despite this limitation, maintenance immunosuppression usage cross pollinates between organ groups with standard of care agents often being used off‐label, making medication access a challenge for many transplant recipients. A multidisciplinary panel of American transplant clinicians was formed to review published literature on maintenance immunosuppression with the goal to formulate consensus recommendations for their use in specific organ groups. These consensus recommendations are intended to provide transplant clinicians with a summary of literature on maintenance immunosuppression in the modern era and to support transplant team members working to secure medication access for patients.
Rasburicase is an effective treatment for patients with hyperuricaemia and may aid in the prevention of hyperuricaemia-associated nephrotoxicity. From our experience, a single dose of 0.15 mg/kg (IBW or aBW) of rasburicase appears to effectively decrease and maintain urate levels within normal limits for 48 h.
Novel applications, such as long-term use in combination with calcineurin-inhibitor dose reduction and its value in the treatment of acute or chronic rejection have yet to be explored. Since daclizumab has been withdrawn from the market, future IL-2 receptor blockade will have to be achieved with basiliximab, which is a chimeric, monoclonal antibody directed against the same epitope.
Obtaining a parathyroid gland and a kidney from the same donor reduces the exposure to different HLA antigens. The combined procedure using minimally invasive surgery is safe, with the additional cosmetic advantage and convenience for the willing donor. In the setting of need for immunosuppression, additional transplantation to treat the cause is safe and justified in the recipients.
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