Nephrostomy drainage for renal transplant complications

The use of temporary diverting nephrostomy drainage in the management of immunosuppressed renal transplant patients with supravesical urinary extravasation, fistulas or ureteral obstruction is reviewed. In a literature survey covering an 11-year interval and 4,307 transplants there were 204 cases (4.7 per cent) of ureteral extravasation or fistula and 113 cases (2.6 per cent) of ureteral obstruction. Attempts at urologic repair in these 317 cases resulted in 30.9 per cent failure rate (98 cases), of which 86.7 per cent (85 cases) occurred in patients without nephrostomy compared to 13.3 per cent (13 cases) in patients with nephrostomy. In our 255 consecutive renal transplant patients there were 7 (2.7 per cent) with ureteral extravasation or fistula and 14 (5.5 per cent) with ureteral obstruction. Temporary nephrostomy was done in all 21 patients to protect the urologic repair and, when necessary, to control sepsis and allow for patient stabilization before delayed urinary tract reconstruction. In our series there was no mortality and only 1 renal unit (4.7 per cent) was lost as a consequence of urologic complications. The use of nephrostomy in transplant patients with ureteral extravasation, fistulas or ureteral obstruction is encouraged strongly to optimize patient and renal unit survival.