The risk of dying from infections after a kidney transplant has decreased by half since the 1990s, with common bacterial infections remaining the most frequent cause of infection-related death among transplant recipients, according to a study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The study authors looked at data on all adult recipients of a first kidney transplantation between 1990 and 2012 in Finland. The researchers then analyzed infectious causes of death and compared the mortality rates for infections between two eras (1990 to 1999 and 2000 to 2012).
Here are four study insights.
1. Out of 3,249 adult recipients of a first kidney transplant included in the analysis, 953 patients (29 percent) died during follow-up, with 204 infection-related deaths.
2. Opportunistic viral, fungal or unconventional bacterial infections were significantly less likely to cause deaths after kidney transplantation than common bacterial infections.
3. Other factors linked to higher risks of infectious death included older recipient age, diabetes as a cause of kidney failure, longer pre-transplant dialysis duration and earlier era of transplantation.
4. "Our study shows that the risk of infectious mortality in patients with a kidney transplant is much lower than previously thought, and that the risk has dropped by half in the 2000s in our cohort despite transplanting older and sicker patients and using more powerful immunosuppression," said study team leader Ilkka Helanterä, MD, PhD.