This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Kidneys from deceased AKI donors not linked with greater rates of all-cause graft failure
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
The use of donor AKI kidneys is not associated with reduced allograft survival and does not adversely affect post-transplant outcomes beyond the first year, according to recently published findings.
“This study shows the medical field that the current practice of utilizing kidneys from donors with AKI does not adversely affect transplant outcomes at an average follow-up of 3.7 years,” study co-author Chirag R. Parikh, MD, PhD, told Healio/Nephrology.
The cohort included 2,430 kidneys transplanted from 1,298 donors, with 585 kidneys from donors with AKI. A total of 623 (26%) all-cause graft failures occurred. This included 402 deaths and 313 death-censored graft failures. All-cause graft failure occurred in 475 (26%) of recipients without donor AKI and 148 (25%) with donor AKI, which was not statistically significant.
The researchers examined whether kidney donor profile index, cold ischemia time, donation after cardiac death, expanded-criteria donation, kidney machine perfusion, donor-recipient gender combinations or delayed graft function had an impact on the relationship between donor AKI and graft survival. No evidence showed that these variables modified the effect of donor AKI on the outcome. There was also no evidence of a donor AKI effect on the composite outcome in the sub-cohort, according to the researchers.
“These results also support the idea of cautiously expanding utilization of donor AKI kidneys with ongoing research,” Parikh said. “This should reassure the general public that acutely injured deceased-donor kidneys considered acceptable by their transplant teams are not more likely to fail compared with non-injured kidneys from otherwise similar donors. We can potentially add 500 additional kidneys to the transplant pool which are currently being discarded.” – by Joe Gramigna
Disclosures: The researchers report funding from the NIH and the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Parikh reports receiving a Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation Award. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts