Defining a Steroid Withdrawal Protocol in a newly established Kidney Transplantation Unit

As a key step in setting up the immunosuppression protocols for our kidney transplantation unit, still in its infancy, consideration of the choice of the steroid withdrawal strategy is important. We conducted a review of literature to ascertain a safe steroid withdrawal protocol that would be able to achieve a high allograft survival and function rate, low acute allograft rejection (AR) rate and advantageous in reducing a wide range of adverse effects associated with corticosteroids such as cardiovascular risks, growth retardation in pediatric patients, osteoporosis and other steroid-related complications.