Clinical management of the HIV-positive kidney transplant recipient

Tremendous progress has been achieved in the management of HIV, allowing individuals infected with this virus to live longer, healthier lives; however, the result of this progress is that HIV-infected individuals are developing end stage liver and kidney disease, and many are either dying from organ failure or living on dialysis. HIV infection was once a contraindication to transplantation, but transplantation is now a possibility for carefully selected patients at several transplant centers in the United States. This article provides an overview of transplantation in patients with HIV infection and describes the evolving clinical management of HIV-infected transplant recipients.