[Can the renal transplant patient be really considered as a patient with chronic renal insufficiency?]

To assess if the renal transplant patient can really be considered as a patient with chronic renal insufficiency, disease progression and outcomes were compared in both groups. At the same stage of chronic kidney disease (CKD), the deterioration of renal function was slower and graft survival was longer in renal transplant patients. Despite slower rates of kidney function decline, overall patient survival was similar between the two groups. Interestingly, stage 3 adjusted mortality rates were greater in kidney transplant recipients, most likely because of the disease burden (history of end-stage renal disease in renal transplant recipients) and immunosuppression. The three major causes of mortality in transplant patients (cardiovascular, infectious and malignant) may present with specific characteristics in transplant patients. Renal transplantation is thus a specific form of CKD, controlled by 3 factors, a single kidney, immunosuppression and the burden of the disease. The general application of the KDOQI and KDIGO guidelines to kidney transplant recipients requires therefore further evaluation.