SUMMARY To determine whether kidneys could be uniformly preserved by simple means for transport, hypothermia was evaluated for short periods up to 16 hr. With attention to certain details, it was shown that hypothermia alone was sufficient to prevent any significant rise in serum creatinine levels after kidneys stored for 8 hr were reimplanted into nephrectomized dogs. With 12 hr of storage, only a small rise (highest mean serum creatinine of 2.8 mg%) occurred. Thirteen kidneys were transported by air as far as 2600 miles and were allografted. With the exception of one technical failure, all functioned well until rejection. The technique was used to harvest and transport 3 human kidneys as far as 400 miles with good results.
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Collins et al. (1969) studied this question.