The weekend effect in kidney transplantation outcomes: A meta-analysis

To determine whether kidney transplants performed during weekends have worse outcomes than those performed during weekdays.

For this systematic review, PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (January 2000 to January 2023) were searched. We examined the survival rates of patients and grafts for hospital inpatients admitted during weekends and those admitted during weekdays. To be included, the study had to be in English and had to provide discrete survival data around weekends versus weekdays, including patients who were admitted as inpatients over the weekend.

Five studies (n = 163,506 patients) were examined. The hazards ratio (HR) of the survival rate of patients with weekend transplantation was 1.01 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.96 to 1.06) when compared with patients with weekday transplantation. Patients who had renal transplant on weekends had an overall allograft survival HR of 1.01 (95% CI, 0.99 to 1.03) and death-censored allograft survival HR of 1.01 (95% CI, 0.98 to 1.04). Comparison of length of hospital stay, rejection, surgical complications, and vascular complications between renal transplants on weekends and those on weekdays showed no statistical difference.

Hospital inpatients admitted for renal transplantation during weekends have a survival rate similar to that of inpatients admitted during weekdays. The weekend effect of renal transplantation was very weak; hence, transplantations done during weekends and weekdays are both appropriate.