Sickle cell and renal transplant: a national survey and literature review

Sickle cell disease is an inherited, structural hemoglobin defect with multisystemic sequelae including renal failure. Patients with sickle cell disease are thought to benefit from renal transplant, but the long-term outcomes in such patients are unclear and have not been supported by any large prospective studies. Similarly, the renal morbidity and outcome after transplant in patients with sickle cell trait is also unclear. There is little evidence concerning living donation in donors with sickle cell disease or sickle cell trait, either for the donor health or for the graft outcome, and there are no United Kingdom guidelines. The aim of this study is to review the evidence surrounding renal transplant in recipients and donors with sickle syndromes and to determine the attitudes and current practices of United Kingdom transplant centers to performing such operations.