Causes of long-term graft failure in renal transplantation

A single-center experience of 980 consecutive renal transplant recipients treated with cyclosporine (CyA) was reviewed to analyze the causes of renal allograft loss and the factors affecting long-term renal survival in CyA-treated kidney transplants. In all, 217 grafts were lost during the observation period, with the most common causes of graft loss being chronic rejection (96 cases, 44%), death with a functioning graft (52 cases, 24%), glomerulonephritis (28 cases, 13%), and acute rejection (20 cases, 8%). The actuarial 10-year survival of patients with living and cadaveric grafts was 93% and 91%, respectively. The actuarial 10-year survival of living and cadaveric grafts was 70% and 63%, respectively. Patients were divided into two groups, namely a graft-survival group (n = 763) and a graft-loss group (n = 217). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of sex, donor source, donor age, recipient age, duration of hemodialysis, retransplants, transfusions, presensitization, of HLA match. There was no difference between the graft-survival group and the graft-loss group in the mean CyA dose given or the mean CyA trough level measured at any time following transplantation. Acute rejection episodes occurred in patients from the graft-survival group (55%) as compared with those from the graft-loss group (83%; P < 0.00001). These data suggest that long-term graft survival in CyA-treated kidney transplant patients is primarily influenced by the occurrence of rejection episodes rather than by the drug dose or the duration of CyA administration. CyA nephrotoxicity was not the major risk factor for long-term graft survival in CyA-treated renal transplants.