The relationship of transfusion and presensitization with graft and patient survival

The authors have analyzed the graft and patient survival results for all 2200 primary and 679 regrafted transplant recipients from June 1977 to October 1981. The findings indicate that: transfusions are associated with only a slight increase in sensitization in both primary transplant and regrafted recipients for those patients eventually transplanted; the beneficial effects of transfusion in terms of graft survival are most significant in unsensitized recipients; sensitization as a result of transfusion is not a significant factor in the decreased graft and patient survival seen in regrafted patients; and transfused-sensitized patients have equal or better graft survival than untransfused patients regardless of sensitization.