Successful Expectant Management of Nonocclusive Thrombosis in Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation

Simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation can be complicated by thrombosis in the early post-transplant period.

We performed a single-center retrospective study examining risk factors, management, and outcomes of modern era SPK transplants. We reviewed 235 recipients over 10 years (January 1, 2008, to September 1, 2017). We used multivariate analysis to examine donor, recipient, and operative risk factors for thrombosis.

Forty-one patients (17%) had a thrombosis diagnosed on postoperative imaging, but 61% of these patients (n = 25/41) did not lose their graft secondary to the thrombosis. Nine patients (22%) were managed with watchful waiting and serial imaging, 12 (29%) were managed with therapeutic anticoagulation, and 4 (10%) required laparotomy and graft thrombectomy. Sixteen of 235 pancreas grafts (6.8%) required pancreatectomy, and 10 of these cases occurred in the first half of the study, before 2012. The risk of thrombosis leading to graft loss increased 11.2-fold in recipients with a body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) > 25 compared with others (odds ratio, 11.2; 95% CI, 1.1-116.7; P = .043).

The majority of SPK transplants (61%) complicated by thrombosis of the pancreatic graft were salvaged by use of imaging, anticoagulation, and in select cases, laparotomy and graft thrombectomy.