BACKGROUND

In Latin America, few reports are available about the clinical outcomes of living donor kidney transplants (LDKT). We aim to evaluate the main clinical outcomes for LDKT patients in a single center's experience.

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated 530 LDKT patients who underwent transplantation from August 2008 to December 2020 at Colombiana de Trasplantes. Graft survival censored for death and patient survival were determined up to 5 years post-transplantation by the Kaplan-Meier method. Vascular and urinary complications, readmission, and reintervention rates were documented.

RESULTS

A total of 530 LDKT patients were analyzed. Most of the recipients were men (56%). There were 123 patients (23.2%) with a preemptive transplant. Panel reactive antibody type I and II had higher immunologic risk (>20%) in 15.9% of the patients. The donor mean age was 37.8 ± 11.5 years. Most of the donors were women (52.6%) and related to the recipient (69.1%). Multivariate analysis identified panel reactive antibody type II (P = 0.003), female donor (P = 0.001), surgical reintervention at 30 days post-transplantation (P < .01), and delayed graft function (P < .01) as risk factors for graft loss. The graft survival death-censored rates were 93.7% and 89% at 1 and 5 years, respectively. Patient survival rates were 97.0% and 94.1% at 1 and 5 years after transplantation, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The long-term graft and patient survival rates in our center are comparable to previous reports from other leading centers. The clinical outcomes from a medium-sized center can be noteworthy, although not entirely new.