Earlier not necessarily better for pre-emptive kidney transplants

WASHINGTON - Pre-dialysis transplant patients with high level of kidney function are unlikely to benefit from the transplantation as compared to those with low-level kidney function, say researchers.

Kidney disease patients with pre-dialysis transplants (”preemptive” transplantation) tend to live longer and have higher functioning transplants than post-dialysis transplant recipients.

However, researchers didn’t know if higher kidney function among pre-dialysis recipients improves patients’ long-term health.

During the study, lead researcher Dr Basit Javaid from Stanford University School of Medicine analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and looked at all preemptive kidney transplant recipients who received their first kidney transplant between October 1987 and February 2009.

These preemptive kidney transplant recipients were divided into two groups: patients with higher kidney function and patients with lower kidney function at the time of transplant.

They found that patient and kidney transplant survival were similar in the two groups.

“Based on these findings, we feel that patients and transplant experts anticipating a preemptive kidney transplant can wait for clinical indications to emerge without any significant loss of survival advantage associated with a preemptive transplant,” said Javaid.

The researchers suggest that patients with higher kidney function needed less dialysis within the first week after transplantation and were less often treated for kidney rejection in the first six months after transplantation.

The study was presented at American Society of Nephrology’s 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, CA. (ANI)