Co-morbid factors related to surgical complications in kidney transplant patients

Abstract

We have studied retrospectively the demographics and different post transplantation morbidities associated with surgical complications in 200 kidney transplant recipients between May 1997 and January 2008. Patients were divided into 2 groups: Group I including 177 patients without surgical complications and Group II including 23 patients who had surgical complications. Baseline demographics and later co-morbidities were analyzed. The baseline characteristics between the 2 groups did not differ significantly, including donor and recipient age and sex, recipients body mass index, cause of original renal disease, transplantation date, dialysis duration, recipients degree of sensitization and pre-transplantation diabetes. However significant difference between the 2 groups included: pre and post-transplant hemoglobin blood level differences (2.6 ± 1.8 mg/dl in Group I versus 4.1 ± 2.0 mg/dl in Group II), number of post-transplant transfusions (0.4 ± 0.8 in Group I versus 2.2 ± 3.7 in Group II), duration of hospital stay (10.9 ± 4.3 days in Group I, versus 17.5 ± 9.2 days in Group II), mean serum creatinine upon discharge (1.47 ± 0.84 mg/dl in Group I versus 2.7 ± 2.87 mg/dl in Group II), death and graft failure at 6 months post-transplant (2 in Group I versus 2 in Group II and 3 in Group I versus 5 in Group II respectively). We conclude that surgical complications were associated with significant short and long term co-morbidities, including duration of hospital stay, serum creatinine upon discharge, and death and graft failures at 6 months post-transplantation.