Risks and Benefits of Kidney Transplantation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Transplant or Not Transplant?

COVID-19 has significantly affected the transplant community, by leading to decreased transplant activity and increased waiting list time. As expected, COVID-19 causes substantial mortality in both ESKD and kidney transplant populations. This is due to underlying CKD and a high prevalence of comorbid conditions, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in this group. Transplant programs have faced the difficult decision of weighing the risks and benefits of transplantation during the pandemic. On one hand, there is a risk of COVID-19 exposure leading to infection while patients are on maximum immunosuppression. Alternatively, there are risks of delaying transplantation, which will increase waitlist times and may lead to waitlist-associated morbidity and mortality. Cautious and thoughtful selection of both the recipient's and donor's post-transplant management has been required during the pandemic, to mitigate the risk of morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19. In this review article, we aimed to discuss previous publications related to clinical outcomes of COVID-19 disease in kidney transplant recipients, patients with ESKD on dialysis, or on the transplant waiting list, and the precautions transplant centers should take in decision making for recipient and donor selection and immunosuppressive management during the pandemic. Nevertheless, transplantation in this milieu does seem to be the correct decision, with careful patient and donor selection and safeguard protocols for infection prevention. Each center should conduct risk assessment on the basis of the patient's age and medical comorbidities, waitlist time, degree of sensitization, cold ischemia time, status of vaccination, and severity of pandemic in their region.

COVID-19 infection in kidney transplant recipients at the epicenter of pandemics.

We investigated the prevalence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in recipients of kidney transplants in the Bronx, New York, one of the epicenters of the pandemic. Between March 16 and June 2, 2020, 132 kidney transplant recipients tested positive by SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. From May 3 to July 29, 2020, 912 kidney transplant recipients were screened for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies during routine clinic visits, of which 16.6% tested positive. Fifty-five of the 152 patients had previously tested positive by RT-PCR, while the remaining 97 did not have significant symptoms and had not been previously tested by RT-PCR. The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection was 23.4% in the 975 patients tested by either RT-PCR or SARS-CoV-2 IgG. Older patients and patients with higher serum creatinine levels were more likely diagnosed by RT-PCR compared to SARS-CoV-2 IgG. Sixty-nine RT-PCR positive patients were screened for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies at a median of 44 days post-diagnosis (Inter Quartile Range 31-58) and 80% were positive. Overall mortality was 20.5% but significantly higher (37.8%) in the patients who required hospitalization. Twenty-three percent of the hospitalized patients required kidney replacement therapy and 6.3% lost their allografts. In multivariable analysis, older age, receipt of deceased-donor transplantation, lack of influenza vaccination in the previous year and higher serum interleukine-6 levels were associated with mortality. Thus, 42% of patients with a kidney transplant and with COVID-19 were diagnosed on antibody testing without significant clinical symptoms; 80% of patients with positive RT-PCR developed SARS-CoV-2 IgG and mortality was high among patients requiring hospitalization.