Gastrointestinal and hepatic complications affecting patients with renal allografts

Of 126 renal allograft recipients, 34 were found to have gastrointestinal and hepatic complications. In order of frequency, these included: mild liver dysfunction, severe hepatitis usually associated with cytomegalovirus infection, peptic ulceration complicated by bleeding, intestinal obstruction, and pancreatitis. These complications did not appear to influence the long-term survival or function of the renal allograft, but proved to be fatal when massive infection of cytomegalovirus affected the gastrointestinal tract and especially the liver. Gastrointestinal and pancreatic complications occurring in renal allograft recipients can be managed in the same manner as in patients who are not receiving immunosuppression. When surgical intervention is required, it should be performed promptly. The fact that these patients are receiving immunosuppressive therapy should not be a contraindication to early surgical intervention. When the presence of ulcerative lesions of the gastrointestinal mucosa, pancreatitis, or hepatitis is confirmed, the possibility of these lesions being caused by viral agents, especially cytomegalovirus, should be considered and attempts to confirm this diagnosis should be made. If cytomegalovirus infection is confirmed and the patient is experiencing rejection of the allograft, careful consideration should be given to immediate discontinuation of immunosuppressive therapy followed by removal of the renal allograft. In this way the relentless and fatal course of the cytomegalovirus infection seen in some of the patients reported in this study may be avoided.