Abstract: To explore the feasibility of replacing nephrectomy of the recipient native kid-ney with extracorporeal ligation （EL） of the recipient native renal vessels for kidney transplantation in rats, The EL of the left and right renal vessels were performed re-spectively at an interval of 20 days in 10 Sprague-Dawley rats of nontransplant group. The EL of the right native renal vessels were performed in 10 kidney transplant Lewis rats with resected left native kidney 3 to 5 days after kidney transplantation. The results showed that the nontransplant rats survived well after EL of the left renal vessels and died within 3 to 4 days after EL of the right renal vessels. The transplant rats survived well after EL of the right native renal vessels. The pathological examination of the kid-neys with EL showed extensive necrosis and that of the transplanted kidneys showed normal structure. It can be concluded that the EL technique of the rat renal vessel is simple, reliable and little traumatic to rats, thus it may be used to replace the nephrec-tomy of the recipient native kidney for kidney transplantation in rats.

Key words: Kidney transplantation , Rats , Ligation , Renal vessel