Bacteriuria and renal infection in kidney-transplant recipients

In 64 patients who had undergone renal transplantation, later on followed by bilateral nephrectomy, bacterial growth culture was performed from the original kidneys. The presence of bacteria in the nephrectomy specimens was compared with the occurrence of significant bacteriuria before transplantation and in the period between transplantation and nephrectomy. Bacteria could be cultured from the nephrectomy specimens of 18 (28.1 per cent) of the patients, almost exclusively confined to cases of obstructive chronic pyelonephritis, analgesic nephropathy and congenital renal disease. Before transplantation, bacteriuria had been recorded in 34.4 per cent of the patients, most frequently in the three groups of diseases just mentioned. Between the transplantation and nephrectomy, bacteriuria occurred in 75.0 per cent of the patients. Patients with E. coliuria before transplantation were particularly liable to have E. coliuria also after the transplantation and to E. coli in the nephrectomy specimens, whereas patients in whon E. coliuria did not occur until in the post-transplantation period were less susceptible to E. coli infection involving the kidneys. Probably the presence of bacteria in the nephrectomy specimens is related to the primary disease rather than to immunosuppressive and antiobiotic agents administered in the post-transplantation period.