Living versus deceased kidney transplantation: Comparison of complications

It is assumed that the outcome of kidney transplantation from living donors is more favorable than deceased donors. However, over the years there has been an overall improvement in transplant survival from both living and deceased donors. In this article we have evaluated and compared the most recent results in living and deceased donor kidney transplantations.

Four hundred and forty six patients underwent kidney transplantation in our center from September 2009 to March 2014. The patients divided in two groups living (group A) and deceased (group B) donor transplantation groups. The patients were followed until September 2016. Acute rejection, graft survival, delayed graft function, renal artery thrombosis, graft nephrectomy, ureterocutaneous fistula, postoperative hypertension, mortality, hospital stay, hyperlipidemia, post transplantation diabetes and lymphocele rate measured and compared in two groups.

Most variables were not different between the two groups except lymphocele and delayed graft function. Lymphocele was more prevalent in group A (13.8% vs 3.1%, p-value = 0.02) and delayed graft function results were more desirable in living donor transplantation group (group B).

Although, delayed graft function was less common in transplantation from living donors, short, and long term graft survival was not significantly different in this study.