Treatment results for pediatric transplantation and nephrology
At New Children’s Hospital, we are responsible nationwide for pediatric organ transplants (kidney, liver, heart, lungs, intestines), dialysis treatments, and the diagnosis and treatment of severe kidney and liver diseases.
At New Children’s Hospital, we perform 15–25 transplantations annually for children aged 0–18 years. In 2021, we performed 23 transplantations. More than 50% of all transplants in children are kidney transplants. The next most frequent procedures performed are liver and heart transplants.
The survival rates of Finnish transplant children are at a high international level. Approximately 95% of children who receive a kidney transplant are alive 10–15 years after transplant surgery, and the rate is approximately 70% for children’s heart and liver transplantations.
In Finland, the long-term performance of children’s kidney transplants is the best, according to the latest report by the ESPN/ERA-EDTA (European Registry for Children on Renal Replacement Therapy).
The pediatric kidney and organ transplantation unit has been a member of the European Network for Rare Kidney Diseases, ERKNET, since 2017 and a member of the pediatric transplant network, TransplantChild, since 2022.
Our treatment results
Causes |
Kidney |
Liver |
Heart |
Transplant does not start working |
- |
1 (8.5%) |
1 (33%) |
Acute rejection |
- |
- |
- |
Chronic rejection |
10 (67%) |
2 (16.5%) |
2 (66%) |
Vascular complication |
1 (6.5%) |
5 (41.5%) |
- |
Biliary tract complication |
- |
2 (16.5) |
- |
Relapse of the underlying disease |
1 (6.5%) |
1 (8.5%) |
- |
Noncompliance |
3 (20%) |
- |
- |
Not identified |
- |
1 (8.5%) |
- |
Between 2000 and 2021, we conducted 385 kidney, liver and heart transplants, of which 30 (7.8%) failed. The causes of irreversible failures and re-transplants are comparable to the results of international registries.
Organ |
New Children’s Hospital |
Scandiatransplant |
European Liver Transplantation Register (ELTR) |
International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) |
Kidney |
88.5% |
85% |
- |
- |
Liver |
67.3% |
- |
66% |
- |
Heart |
72.4% |
- |
- |
65% |
The 10-year graft function prognosis for transplants of children who have received an organ transplant in Finland by organ group compared to international register data.
The main causes of death in patients who received a transplant as a child were infections, cardiovascular deaths, and malignancies