Urinary tract infections in renal allograft recipients from living related donors

Urinary tract infection (UTI) remains the most common infectious complication in renal transplant recipients. We aimed in our study to describe the epidemiological patterns and evaluate the favouring factors of UTI in our renal allograft recipients. We evaluated retrospectively all the UTIs in 47 kidney recipients transplanted from living-related kidney donors in Rabat University Hospital, Morocco, from January 1998 to December 2005. The mean follow-up was 28+/-19 months. The mean age of the patients was 32+/-10 years with a male/female ratio of 1.35/1. Twenty patients (42%) suffered at least one UTI episode. UTIs were asymptomatic in 70% of the patients, while manifested as acute pyelonephritis in 17% and uncomplicated acute bacterial cystitis in 13%. UTI episodes occurred in 68% of the patients during the first 3 months post-kidney transplantation with a recurrence rate of 55%, and all the patients experienced a favourable course. Gram-negative bacilli were the principally isolated agents; E. Coli was found in 60% of the patients and Klebsiella in 30%. UTI was more common in females (p=0.04) and cases of post transplantation vesicoureteral reflux (p=0.03). The graft survival rate at the end of the study was comparable for both UTI and non-UTI groups.