Family reflections: pediatric organ transplant

Infections in Pediatric Solid Organ Transplant Recipients.

Infectious complications are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children undergoing solid organ transplantation. Knowledge gained over the last 30 years provides a growing understanding of these infections. This review identifies risk factors for and timing of infections describes the common infectious syndromes and pathogens seen in children undergoing solid organ transplantation...

Pediatric Liver Transplant

The goals of post-transplant management are to manage and treat postoperative complications, and develop a balanced long-term immunotherapy regimen that minimizes infection and side effects but controls rejection. While modern immunosuppressant regimes have reduced rates of graft loss due to rejection, they impart major risks for infection, growth failure, metabolic complications, and malignanc...

Anesthesia considerations for pediatric thoracic solid organ transplant.

This article discusses the indications, perioperative management, postoperative complications, and patient outcome of pediatric heart transplantation and pediatric lung transplantation. Special emphasis is placed on the anesthetic considerations relevant for children who are undergoing or have received a solid thoracic organ transplant.

Tolerance in Solid-Organ Transplant.

Immunotolerance, which is nonimmunologic reactivity to specific tissue, was demonstrated in animals in the 1950s. However, despite assiduous efforts, it has not been reproduced in human solid-organ transplant to date. Fortuitously, clinical operational tolerance, which is stable graft function for > 1 year with no immunosuppression, has been demonstrated, primarily in a few nonadherent recipien...

Chimerism after Whole Organ Transplant.