Pregnancy after kidney transplantation. Report of 6 successful cases with multiple risk factors

: The long-term course before, during and after successful pregnancy in six women 3 to 6 years after receiving CD-kidney transplants from dead donors is described. Multiple risk factors such as hypertension, considerable proteinuria, preceding rejection crises etc. have been taken into account. The analysis includes the observation of a pregnancy which began already in the 1st month after transplantation. With the exception of a patient with hydronephrosis, whose functional data remained normal, the transplants of all patients showed better functional data after delivery than before pregnancy (maximum period of observation: 5 years 3 months post delivery). The patients mainly received alternating prednisolone therapy. Immunosuppression was generally reduced in the second trimester and was temporarily increased above the maintenance dosage after delivery. All children were eutrophic at birth and developed normally without complications. Important factors leading to the good overall clinical result were intensive out-patient care and the cooperation between nephrologists, urologists, gynecologists and neonatalogists. Despite our very good experience with 6 pregnancies successfully carried to full term by women with kidney transplants, the risk for mother and child should only cautiously be estimated, taking into account the results of future larger studies.