Spontaneous clearance of hepatitis B surface antigenemia after long-term hemodialysis.

Persistent infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) [as indicated by chronic HBV surface antigenemia (HBsAg)] continues to be an important problem in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and specifically in those receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD). Patients on HD who are HBsAg-positive for a year have little chance of ever eliminating the virus; hence, clearance of HBsAg is a rare event in long-term HD patients. We report the case of a 62-year-old diabetic woman who was HBsAg-positive at the time she started HD and remained so until 10 years later when she became HBsAg-negative followed by the development of hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs). Prior to her seroconversion, she suffered a persistent infection of her HD arteriovenous graft (AVG) that required prolonged antibiotics and several surgical procedures. We speculate that this immune stimulation contributed to her seroconversion.

Forty-eight hour kidney transplant admissions.

Forty-eight hour kidney transplantation admissions are a feasible option in selected recipients of live-donor allografts through the use of standardized post-operative protocols, multidisciplinary team patient care, and intensive follow-up at outpatient centers. Age, gender, and pre-transplant dialysis status did not impact the ability to achieve 48-hour admissions. We did not identify any other pre-operative risk factors that contributed to increased length of stay. Although ABO and highly sensitized recipients had longer lengths of stay, the subgroup was too small to achieve statistical significance. We did not encounter any readmissions within the first seven post-operative days. Further improvements in clinical management will enhance the potential to shorten the length of hospital stay for all kidney transplant recipients.

Recipient Criteria Predictive of Graft Failure in Kidney Transplantation.

Several classifications systems have been developed to predict outcomes of kidney transplantation based on donor variables. This study aims to identify kidney transplant recipient variables that would predict graft outcome irrespective of donor characteristics. All U.S. kidney transplant recipients between October 25,1999 and January 1, 2007 were reviewed. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model time until graft failure. Death-censored and nondeath-censored graft survival models were generated for recipients of live and deceased donor organs. Recipient age, gender, body mass index (BMI), presence of cardiac risk factors, peripheral vascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, history of malignancy, hepatitis B core antibody, hepatitis C infection, dialysis status, panel-reactive antibodies (PRA), geographic region, educational level, and prior kidney transplant were evaluated in all kidney transplant recipients. Among the 88,284 adult transplant recipients the following groups had increased risk of graft failure: younger and older recipients, increasing PRA (hazard ratio [HR],1.03-1.06], increasing BMI (HR, 1.04-1.62), previous kidney transplant (HR, 1.17-1.26), dialysis at the time of transplantation (HR, 1.39-1.51), hepatitis C infection (HR, 1.41-1.63), and educational level (HR, 1.05-1.42). Predictive criteria based on recipient characteristics could guide organ allocation, risk stratification, and patient expectations in planning kidney transplantation.

Factors associated with completion of pre-kidney transplant evaluations.

This study sought to examine various factors that may prevent transplant candidates from completing their transplant workup prior to listing. We reviewed the records of 170 subjects (cases = 100, controls 70) who were either on dialysis or had less than 20 mL/min creatinine clearance and were therefore candidates for preemptive transplantation. Approximately, 56% of preemptive patients completed their workup, while only 36% of patients on dialysis completed their workup. Our data revealed that factors contributing toward completion of workup included intrinsic motivation (four times more likely), lack of specific medical comorbidities (three times more likely), and preemptive status (two times more likely). Among patients on dialysis, intrinsic motivation (five times more likely) and absence of cardiovascular complications (four times more likely) were associated with completion. When comparing patients on dialysis to patients not on dialysis, there were significant differences between the two groups in distance from home to the transplant center, level of education, and presence of medical comorbidities. We believe that targeted interventions such as timely referral, providing appropriate educational resources, and development of adequate support systems, have the potential to improve workup compliance of patients with advanced chronic kidney disease, including those on dialysis.

Removal of foley catheters in live donor kidney transplant recipients on postoperative day 1 does not increase the incidence of urine leaks.

Catheterization of the urinary bladder during kidney transplantation is essential. The optimal time to remove the Foley catheter postoperatively is not universally defined. It is our practice to remove the Foley catheter on postoperative day 1 in live donor kidney transplant recipients who meet our standardized protocol criteria. We believe that early removal of Foley catheters increases patient comfort and mobility, decreases the risk of catheter associated urinary tract infections, and allows for decreased hospital length of stay. The hypothetical risk of early removal of Foley catheters would be the increased risk of urine leak. We reviewed 120 consecutive live donor kidney transplant recipients and found that there was not an increased incidence of urine leaks in patients whose Foley catheters were removed on postoperative day 1.

Shortened length of stay improves financial outcomes in living donor kidney transplantation.

Kidney transplantation is the preferred clinical and most cost-effective option for end-stage renal disease. Significant advances have taken place in the care of the transplant patients with improvements in clinical outcomes. The optimization of the costs of transplantation has been a constant goal as well. We present herein the impact in financial outcomes of a shortened length of stay after kidney transplant.