Neoral reduces the incidence of acute rejection after renal transplantation.

A NEW oral formulation of cyclosporine A based on microemulsion technology, Neoral, is available. Studies on healthy volunteers and stable renal transplant patients indicated that interand intrapatient variability of all the pharmacokinetic parameters are significantly reduced when compared with Sandimmune. Initially these advantages were considered to be an improvement only for the management of patients, but as time went on, Neoral turned out to be an improvement in immunosuppression since reduced the incidence of acute rejection. To clarify the immunosuppressive efficacy of Neoral, we retrospectively analysed the incidence of acute and steroidresistant rejections observed during the first 3 months in a group of patients who underwent first renal transplantation and were treated with Neoral. As comparison, we considered a matched group of patients transplanted in the same centre during the months immediately preceding the use of Neoral.