A Survival Analysis of Living Donor Kidney Transplant

Superior patient and graft survival rates have been attributed to living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) when compared to deceased donor transplantation. The aim of this study was to assess graft survival in a population of LDKT in the last 14 years and the potential impact of some clinical features.

A retrospective observational study was conducted, reviewing the records of all patients undergoing LDKT in one center from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2017. Survival data were evaluated by Kaplan-Meier, log rank test, and Cox regression.

Two hundred seventy-seven LDKT were performed. The median follow-up time was 4 (0-13) years. Graft loss was observed in 9% of patients; 4 patients died. The overall survival was 97% at year 1, 94% at year 5, and 83% at years 10 and 13. We found a significantly worse graft survival in patients with early vascular complications that required surgical intervention (P = .00) ≥3 HLA MM (P = .01), ≥1 HLA-DR MM (P = .04) and female recipients (P = .01). The negative impact of ≥1 HLA-B MM on survival was borderline (P = .05). After excluding early graft losses secondary to vascular events, ≥1 HLA-A MM and rejection have also implicated a negative impact on survival (P = .04 and .01, respectively). In the multivariate analysis, these variables were still related to inferior survival.

We observed a good overall graft survival (>80% after 13 years). Possible factors related to poor outcomes suggested by this study were early vascular complications; HLA mismatches; rejection; and, with less certainty, female recipients.