Long-term kidney graft survival similar with COVID-19 vs. non-COVID-19 donors
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Key takeaways:
- Outcomes were similar using kidneys from deceased donors who had COVID-19 vs. patients with donors without COVID-19.
- The use of organ donors with COVID-19 can help alleviate the organ shortage.
Using deceased kidney donors who had COVID-19 produced similar long-term outcomes for graft survival to donors without the virus, according to research presented at the American Transplant Congress.
“One-year, 180-day and 80-day overall survival[s] were comparable between recipients of COVID-19-positive donors and non-COVID-19 donors,” Kenji Okumura, MD, of the department of surgery at Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College, said in a presentation.
Data derived from Okumura K, et al. Long-term nationwide outcomes of solid organ transplantation from COVID-positive donors in the United States. Presented at: the American Transplant Congress; June 3-7, 2023; San Diego (hybrid).
Previous reports had shown good short-term results for patients, Okumura and colleagues wrote in an abstract. “The aim of this study was to assess 1-year outcomes in [solid organ transplantation] SOT recipients who received organs from COVID-[positive] donors,” the authors wrote.
The researchers identified deceased donors from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) database with a positive COVID-19 test within 14 days of transplantation between March 2020 and December 2021. During the study period, the UNOS data showed that 193 COVID-19-positive deceased donors led to the transplantation of 281 kidneys, 106 livers and 36 hearts in 414 adult recipients, Okumura and colleagues wrote.
During the oral presentation, Okumura said the researcher team did not know if the donors from the UNOS database had died from COVID-19.
“When compared to COVID-negative (COVID-) donors, COVID-[positive] donors were younger and had a lower median Kidney Donor Profile Index (0.37 vs. 0.5, P .001), lower median serum creatinine (0.8 vs. 1 mg/dL, P = .003), similar median serum total bilirubin (0.6 mg/dL, P = .46), and similar left ventricular ejection fraction (60%, P = .84),” they wrote.
The authors wrote that use of organs from COVID positive donors “remains low across various transplant centers in the U.S. Long-term outcomes of SOT from COVID- [positive] donors are encouraging and can help to successfully expand the donor pool.”
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Okumura K, et al. Long-term nationwide outcomes of solid organ transplantation from COVID-positive donors in the United States. Presented at: the American Transplant Congress; June 3-7, 2023; San Diego (hybrid).
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