Urologic Complications in 4000 Kidney Transplants Performed at the Saint Barnabas Health Care System

Renal transplantation is the current standard treatment for end-stage renal disease and is associated with immunologic, vascular, and urologic complications. In this study we report urologic complications following ureteral reimplantation based on 1 urologist's experience at a single high-volume renal transplant institution.

A retrospective review was performed on all patients who underwent ureteral reimplantation by the transplant urologist at the time of their kidney transplant between July 1, 1993, and December 31, 2016.

There was a total of 3951 ureteral reimplantations performed for 3890 renal transplants. The overall complication rate was 7% (276 patients). Vesicoureteral reflux was the most common complication (4.25%), followed by ureteral stricture (1.9%), urine leak (0.6%), and de novo ureteropelvic junction obstruction (0.25%).

This study is a continuation of our previous case series. Over time, our overall rate of urologic complications has increased. Vesicoureteral reflux has remained the most common complication with increasing incidence compared with our prior reviews. One possible cause for increased incidence is our thorough longitudinal follow-up over more than 2 decades. Some patients who previously had no evidence of reflux eventually did in fact develop reflux. The incidence of ureteral stricture, urine leak, and ureteropelvic junction obstruction has overall remained stable over the past 23 years. In our program, 1 transplant urologist has performed almost all ureteroneocystostomies, leading to consistent management and generalizable results. Review of the literature shows variable rates of complications among different studies with multiple surgeons, disparate techniques, and short follow-up. Our study eliminates many of these confounding factors and provides more reliable, reproducible data.