Failure of Renal Transplantation in Primary Oxalosisn

Severe renal insufficiency developed in a young man ill for many years with primary oxalosis. We felt that a renal transplant might reverse the enzymatic deficiency of glyoxylate transamination and prevent the deposition of oxalate crystals in the kidney. However, the transplant did not help, and the patient died with evidence of deposits of oxalate in the transplanted kidney and throughout his tissues. We believe that transplants should not be performed in primary oxalosis, but methods should be developed where glyoxylate would be converted to glycine instead of insoluble oxalate.

Report of a Case.—  A 22-year-old white man entered the Stanford University Medical Center because of renal failure and for a possible kidney transplant. When the patient was 3 years old, oxalate nephrolithiasis developed with removal of a right ureteral calculus. Since then, many renal calculi and pyelonephritis developed. In October 1967, he experienced extreme weakness and dyspnea, had a