Obesity and kidney transplantation

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. It is a risk factor for developing, among others, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease (CKD), and thus a major public health concern and driver of healthcare costs. Although the prevalence of obesity in the CKD/end-stage kidney disease population is increasing, many obese patients are excluded from the benefit of kidney transplant based on their BMI alone. For this reason, we sought to review the experience thus far with kidney transplantation in obese patients and associated outcomes.

Obesity is associated with a lower rate of referral and waitlisting, and lower likelihood of kidney transplantation. Despite increased risk for early surgical complications and delayed graft function, experience from multiple centers demonstrate a clear survival benefit of transplantation over dialysis in most obese patients, and comparable graft and patient survival rates to nonobese recipients.

Data suggest that long-term transplant outcomes among obese recipients are similar to those among nonobese. Strategies to achieve pretransplant weight reduction and minimally invasive surgical techniques may further improve results of kidney transplantation in obese recipients.