Clinical Prognosis of Renal Retransplant Patients: A Single-Center Experience.

BACKGROUND: Retransplantation is a treatment option in patients with end-stage renal failure due to graft loss. Outcomes of these patients due to high immunologic risk remain unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate outcomes of renal retransplantation patients retrospectively. METHODS: Renal retransplant patients in our unit were evaluated retrospectively between 2010 and 2018. Patients' demographic characteristics, primary diseases, the causes of prior graft loss, immunologic status, desensitization protocols, the induction and maintenance treatments, the complications during the follow-up period, numbers of acute rejections, and the clinical prognosis were all detected from the patients' files. RESULTS: We retrospectively evaluated 17 patients who underwent a second or third renal allograft. Of these, 16 received a second and the remaining 1 patient received a third renal allograft. Immunologically, all of the 17 patients had negative flow cytometry crossmatch, 1 patient had a positive complement-dependent cytotoxicity crossmatch (Auto 12%), 16 patients had positive panel reactive antibody, the median HLA-mismatch was 3.5, and the score of donor-specific antibody relative intensity score (RIS) was 6.4 ± 6.3. Ten pretransplant patients had desensitization treatment. While scores for HLA-MM and HLA-RIS in the patients who had a desensitization therapy were determined higher, no statistical difference was observed (respectively, P = .28 and .55). No acute rejection episode developed. BK virus DNA viremia was detected in 4 patients during the posttransplant 6th month. We observed no patient death or no graft loss during the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Although the retransplant patients who had a graft loss previously have high immunologic risks, retransplantation is reliable in these patients, but they should be followed up carefully in terms of BKV nephropathy.

Outcome of Desensitization Therapy in Immunologically High-Risk Kidney Transplantation: Single-Center Experience.

AIM: Sensitization to HLA antigens creates an immunologic barrier, linked to an increased risk of antibody-mediated rejection and poorer graft survival, that remains a persistent and often impenetrable deterrent to transplantation. Desensitization can improve transplantation rates in broadly sensitized kidney transplant recipients. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of immunologic high-risk kidney recipients who had desensitization treatment with the outcomes of those who did not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated patients who underwent desensitization protocol due to immunologic risk between 2010 and 2018. Living-donor transplantation patients with panel reactive antibody positivity, retransplantation, donor specific antibody, and/or single antigen bead positivity were included in the study. We excluded deceased-donor transplantation recipients. Demographic data (age, sex, etiology of end-stage renal disease, blood transfusions, pregnancy, etc), immunologic status (HLA-mismatch [HLA-MM], panel reactive antibody, donor specific antibody, etc), induction and maintenance of immunosuppressive medications, and complications (all-cause hospitalizations, episodes of acute rejections, etc) were noted. We compared data and clinical outcomes of patients who had desensitization (Group 1) with data and clinical outcomes of patients who had not had desensitization (Group 2). FINDINGS: There were 124 living-kidney donors (49 female, mean age 43.7 ± 12.2 years, mean body mass index [BMI] 25.8 ± 5.8 kg/m2, mean follow-up time 20.9 ± 14.6 months). Thirty-four of these patients (25 female, mean age 43.7 ± 12.5 years, mean follow-up time 26.1 ± 17.7 months, mean BMI 27 ± 6.5 kg/m2) had desensitization treatment (rituximab+plasmapheresis for 19 patients, rituximab for 11 patients, rituximab+plasmapheresis+intravenous immunoglobulin for 4 patients). Ninety patients (24 female, mean age 43.7 ± 12.2 years, mean follow-up time 18.9 ± 12.9 months, mean BMI 25.3 ± 5.4 kg/m2) had not had desensitization. There was no statistical difference between groups for age, sex, hepatitis serology, history of blood transfusion, history of pregnancy, or history of dialysis (P < .05 for all parameters). While scores for HLA-MM and HLA-relative intensity scale (RIS) were 2.7 ± 1.6 and 7.86 ± 6.2, respectively, in Group 1, in Group 2 the same scores were 2.1 ± 1.1 and 3.6 ± 2.5, respectively (P: .053 and .03). Delayed graft function, acute rejection episodes, and hospitalizations were similar between groups (P: .47, .29, and .34, respectively). Follow-up time and length of hospitalization were longer in Group 1 (P: .013 and .001, respectively). Total doses of ATG were higher in Group 1 patients (P: .007). CONCLUSION: Despite the higher HLA-MM and RIS scores, clinical outcomes in desensitized patients were found to be similar to those in nondesensitized patients for acute rejection episodes and hospitalizations. Desensitization with rituximab in patients with high HLA-RIS scores can prevent acute rejection and hospitalization.