Retinal Separation in Chronic Glomerulonephritis

Abstract

Retinal separations are an occasional complication of renal disease. They are reversible if the underlying disease process or its metabolic derangements can be corrected. The case to be reported represents an unexpected and probably unique experience in which renal transplantation cured bilateral retinal separations secondary to chronic renal disease; these separations had persisted in spite of hemodialysis on the artificial kidney. Renal homotransplantation failures have usually been due to rejection of the transplanted tissue by the host. Unless the donor tissue is antigenically similar to the host, as when it is obtained from an identical twin, antibodies are formed against the transplanted tissue. Lymphocytes as the source of antibodies appear to be most concerned with the rejection phenomenon. The thymus has been implicated in the rejection phenomenon, perhaps as the original source of lymphocytes that act in rejection. Thymectomy in newborn mice and rats will permit indiscriminate homografting of various