This article reviews innovations in kidney transplantation, particularly in terms of cutaneous carcinomas and ABO incompatibility. Kidney transplant recipients are at risk of developing basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas due to immunosuppression induced by anti-rejection therapy. A multidisciplinary approach to these skin lesions is required to optimize the therapeutic management, thereby improving patient prognosis. Kidney transplantation from ABO-incompatible living donor patients was introduced in 1982 and successfully taken up in our institution last year. It is rendered possible due to a strategy combining desensitization of the recipient and reinforced immunosuppression. Survival of patients and grafts appears to be equivalent to that observed in ABO compatible transplant patients.
Key words
Kidney transplantation, ABO compatibility, desensitization, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, immunosuppression, sirolimus, tacrolimus, cyclosporin, immunotherapy