| Abstract
| - Background. As warm ischaemic damage is a major reason for the loss of donor organs, an experimental study was performed in order to evaluate retrograde oxygen persufflation (ROP) as a method to extend the warm ischaemic tolerance of kidneys. Methods. Kidneys of 32 pigs were exposed to warm ischaemia for 60, 90 or 120 min. Then, 16 kidneys were subjected to ROP for 4 h at 4°C and 16 controls were stored in cold UW-solution, followed by autotransplantation. Results. Only in the group with 60 min warm ischaemic time and ROP did all animals survive the observation period of 7 days. In all other groups some animals died due to anuria. Short-term survivors in these groups had significantly higher creatinine levels. Conclusions. In this setting, ROP was superior to cold storage when applied after 60 min of warm ischaemia. Clinical evaluation of ROP in the setting of marginal donors and non-heartbeating donation is recommended.
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