Pregnancy after renal transplantation: Effects on mother, child, and renal graft function

The aim of this study was to report our experience of pregnancy in renal transplant (RT) patients and its medium and long-term effects on the renal graft as well as the maternal fetal complications. We studied 21 pregnancies in 12 RT patients with mean age of 29.9 ± 5.3 years. The mean duration of RT to 1 st pregnancy was 42 (21-68.5) months and the median follow-up period was 112.5 (138-165) months. The pregnancy was planned in 28.6% of the cases. At the time of the diagnosis of the pregnancy, all the patients were maintained on corticosteroids and cyclosporine, 14.3% of the patients were on mycophenolate mofetil, and 71.4% of the patients were on azathioprine. The high blood pressure was present before the pregnancy in 33.3% of the patients. During pregnancy, proteinuria appeared in 20% of the cases, urinary tract infection in 33.3%, and preeclampsia in 5%. Anemia was present in all the patients during pregnancy. The doses of cyclosporine were increased during pregnancy. The mean term of delivery was 37 ± 2 weeks. Premature delivery was observed in 19% of the cases, fetal death in utero in 10%, and abortion in 15%. The number of living children was 16, with a mean birth weight of 3014 ± 515 g; the weight was lower than 2500 g in three (15%) cases. In the long-term follow-up, we noticed two cases of acute rejection related to patients' noncompliance, and four cases of chronic allograft nephropathy, without a switch to dialysis. We conclude that pregnancy in RT patients requires multidisciplinary care because of the increased risks of maternal and fetal complications. Each pregnancy needs to be planned; all parameters have to be studied and evaluated in order to allow for optimization of outcome and minimization of complications.