Pediatric renal transplant patients present a number of challenges and problems, especially the inhibited post-transplant growth seen in children receiving standard immunosuppressive triple therapy that includes steroids. We report the successful use of steroid-free immunosuppression since 1990 in 14 pediatric renal allograft recipients who received a 10-day initial course of anti-lymphocyte globulin and surface area-adjusted doses of cyclosporine, 7 of whom also received mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as maintenance immunosuppression. Only 1 patient died (3 months after transplantation as a result of a primary Epstein-Barr virus infection-induced lymphoproliferative disorder), 1 patient's graft never functioned, and another patient lost his graft after 3 years because of chronic rejection. Three patients experienced early acute cellular rejection, which resolved in 2 cases with OKT3, and in the 3rd with MMF. There were no late acute rejections. All patients evidenced growth and a growth spurt under this regimen. We conclude that all the pediatric patients benefited from our steroid-free protocol and that this protocol is superior to conventional triple therapies, which entail the eventual reduction and discontinuation of steroids, a procedure that not only inhibits growth but also carries an additional risk of acute rejection due to a steroid-adapted immune response.

Steroid avoidance is possible with good results with respect to acute rejection and long-term graft survival. After introducing MMF, largely avoiding muromonab-CD3 mouse raised monoclonal antibody against CD (OKT3), and reducing doses of calcineurin inhibitor, the rates of PTLD did not differ from what is usually found. For the present, induction and use of MMF, together with a calcineurin inhibitor, is probably to be preferred.

The clinical indications for and the timing of removal of non-functioning cadaver kidney transplants were studied in 49 of 58 kidneys which had never functioned or which ceased to function in the period 1979-1982. The reason for graftectomy was rejection in 32 cases, rejection and graft infection in eight, surgical complications in eight cases and infection in one case. Nine of the 58 failed kidney grafts were not removed. Graftectomy was performed within a week after diagnosis of graft failure in 24 of the 49 cases. The clinical indications for graftectomy were compared with the morphologic observations in the grafts. Discrepancy was greatest in regard to diagnosis of rejection and primary renal artery thrombosis. Severe complications related to graft failure aggravated the condition in 17 patients and resulted in eight deaths. Based on the findings, a management schedule is proposed. It facilitates postponement or avoidance of graftectomy and minimizes the risk of complications relating to failure of graft function.

A patient who was operated for an abdominal aortic aneurysm 7 years earlier presented with recently discovered iliac and renal artery aneurysms. The renal artery had an angulation of 90 , but the aneurysm was successfully excluded using a covered vascular stent graft placed over an extra stiff guidewire. Even in cases of complex anatomy of a renal aneurysm, endovascular treatment should be considered. With development of more flexible and low-profile endoprosthesis with accurate deployment, these have become more usable.

A short review is given of tumours of the urinary bladder in children, and the first case of an inverted papilloma in a child is reported. The tumour was situated in the trigone of the bladder and was successfully extirpated, with no recurrence at follow-up 9 months later. It was histologically typical of these tumours. The 105 patients described in the literature had an average age of 55 years, whereas the present case is the first to be described arising during the first two decades of life. The most frequent symptoms of such tumours are haematuria and urinary obstruction. It is suggested that the treatment of choice is transurethral excision. The term Brunnian adenoma is recommended for use with this tumour, in order to avoid the impression given by the name papilloma of the bladder, that the tumour is malignant.