Surgical site infection after renal transplantation

To identify factors associated with the development of surgical site infection (SSI) among adult patients undergoing renal transplantation

A retrospective cohort study.

An urban tertiary care center in Baltimore, Maryland, with a well-established renal transplantation program that performs ~200-250 renal transplant procedures annually.

At total of 441 adult patients underwent renal transplantation between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011. Of these 441 patients, 66 (15%) developed an SSI; of these 66, 31 (47%) were superficial incisional infections and 35 (53%) were deep-incisional or organ-space infections. The average body mass index (BMI) among this patient cohort was 29.7; 84 (42%) were obese (BMI >30). Patients who developed an SSI had a greater mean BMI (31.7 vs 29.4; P=.004) and were more likely to have a history of peripheral vascular disease, rheumatologic disease, and narcotic abuse. History of cerebral vascular disease was protective. Multivariate analysis showed BMI (odds ratio [OR] 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.11) and past history of narcotic use/abuse (OR, 4.86; 95% CI, 1.24-19.12) to be significantly associated with development of SSI after controlling for National Healthcare Surveillance Network (NHSN) score and presence of cerebrovascular, peripheral vascular, and rheumatologic disease.

We identified higher BMI as a risk factor for the development of SSI following renal transplantation. Notably, neither aggregate comorbidity scores nor NHSN risk index were associated with SSI in this population. Additional risk adjustment measures and research in this area are needed to compare SSIs across transplant centers.