Comparison of outcomes between kidney transplant-naïve and post-transplant graft failure peritoneal dialysis patients

This study was conducted to compare clinical outcomes between transplant-naïve peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and those returning to PD after a failed allograft.

In this retrospective cohort study during 2006 and 2016, we included a total of 786 patients on chronic PD. Of them 679 were transplant-naïve, 75 patients underwent a successful transplantation, and 32 patients returned to PD after a failed kidney allograft. Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics were analyzed in relation to the outcomes of all-cause mortality and peritonitis rate. We employed the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model to evaluate survival, while Poisson regression was utilized to estimate rate ratios for peritonitis.

During a median follow-up of 6.37 years, 56.68 % death and 146.62 episodes of peritonitis/patient-year were observed. Compared with patients who received a kidney graft, transplant-naïve patients were older, more with diabetes and having higher mortality (58.6 ± 15.8, 40.5 % and 57.73 %, p < 0.0001). After accounting for age, gender, and comorbidities, the adjusted hazards ratios were 0.26 (95 % CI 0.13-0.53) in patients with a functioning graft and 1.12 (95 % CI 0.61-2.06) in patients returning to PD after graft failure, compared respectively with concurrent PD patients without kidney transplant. The adjusted rate ratio of peritonitis in patients resuming PD after graft failure was 0.55 (95 % CI: 0.22-1.14) compared to those without kidney transplant.

Patients restarting PD after graft failure exhibited clinical outcomes comparable to transplant-naïve PD patients. These findings support the feasibility of reinitiating PD after kidney transplant fails.