Renal Transplant Experience in a Tertiary Care Center in Saudi Arabia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Data on outcomes of renal transplantation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is limited. We describe renal transplant experience in one of the largest referral centers for renal transplants in KSA.

This is a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent kidney transplantation at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) from January 2016 to July 31, 2019, with at least one year of follow-up post-transplantation.

One hundred ninety-four individuals were identified and included in the analysis. The mean age of the renal transplant cohort was 45 years with an average pre-transplant body mass index of 26.1 kg/m². The most common comorbidities were hypertension (77.3%) and diabetes mellitus (34.5%). The most common etiology of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) was unknown (49.0%) followed by Lupus nephropathy (16.0%). Central venous catheters were the predominant dialysis access (56.2%). Living-related kidney donation was the commonest source of kidney transplantation (61.3%), followed by deceased donor renal transplantation (22.7%). Anti-thymocytes globulin (ATG) was the predominant induction agent (57.7%) and nearly all patients received tacrolimus-based maintenance immunosuppression. Mean serum creatinine at the time of discharge was 109 umol/l. Delayed graft function was observed in 6.7% of our patients. The most common medical complications were urinary tract infection (26.3%). Post-transplant surgical complications occurred at a low rate.

Our study demonstrated a successful renal transplant experience among a relatively healthy cohort and identifies potential gaps, particularly the high rate of central venous catheters, the frequent lack of clear etiology of ESKD, the low rate of pre-emptive transplant, and deceased donors. Further studies are needed to evaluate and close these gaps.