Donor risk index does not predict graft survival after pancreas transplantation in Brazil

Pancreas donor risk index (DRI) was developed by using large multicenter American data to predict the risk of adverse outcomes in pancreas transplantation based on donor and technical/logistical characteristics.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the DRI in predicting graft survival in a Brazilian population of pancreas transplant recipients.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the 570 procedures performed by the same surgical team between 1996 and 2011. Because of the lack of sufficient data for the calculation of DRI values, only 154 cases were studied (27%), of which 105 underwent simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation, 33 underwent pancreas after kidney transplantation, and 16 underwent pancreas transplantation alone. Donor cause of death was classified as cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and non-CVA. Graft origin was divided into three groups: local, if the graft was obtained in the metropolitan area of the city of São Paulo; regional, if collected in other cities of the state of São Paulo; and national, if obtained outside the state.

Logistic regression analysis did not find a statistically significant association between DRI values and 1-year graft survival (odds ratio = 0.676; 95% confidence interval 0.152 to 3.014; P = .60). One-year graft survival calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method was 89.8% in transplants with DRI ≤ 1, 77.9% in those with 1 < DRI < 1.5, and 93.3% in those with DRI ≥ 1.5 (P = .106).

The pancreas DRI model did not prove effective in predicting pancreas graft survival in a Brazilian sample of recipients.