Reversal of deafness after renal transplantation in Alport's syndrome

Abstract

Six patients (five men and one woman) with Alport's syndrome underwent successful renal transplantation (four received kidneys from cadaver donors and two received allografts from living, related donors). One patient who had received a cadaver kidney had substantial hearing improvement and the others had stabilization of hearing. Hearing loss in Alport's syndrome is progressive. The reversal of deafness in one of our patients and stabilization in the others made us wonder whether an inherited enzymopathy had been reversed, which then mitigated the deafness.