Obesity favors surgical and infectious complications after renal transplantation

The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the renal transplant population. There are controversial data with respect to posttransplant outcome. We performed a study comparing the incidence of surgical and infectious complications among 40 obese patients (body mass index [BMI] pretransplant > or =30 kg/m2) versus a matched nonobese control group (BMI <30 kg/m2) transplanted at our center between June 1989 and March 2001.

There were no differences in patient demographic variables (mean age, gender, cause of renal failure, or percentage of diabetes or hepatitis C virus infection). Donor age, HLA mismatching, sensitization, cold ischemia time, and immunosuppressive regimen were similar in both groups. The mean pretransplant BMI in obese and nonobese patients was 34.1+/-4.0 versus 23.00+/-2.73 kg/m2 (P<.01). The obese group showed a higher incidence of delayed graft function (30% versus 5%, P<.05) and wound infections (12.5%) posttransplant with similar incidences of wound dehiscence, perigraft collections, and graft function at the end of follow up.