The liver neither protects the kidney from rejection nor improves kidney graft survival after combined liver and kidney transplantation from the same donor.

It has been proposed that the liver protects a simultaneously transplanted kidney from acute rejection. Using the United Network for Organ Sharing database, we compared the kidney allograft data from 248 combined liver and kidney transplants (LKT) with a control group comprising 206 contralateral kidney alone transplants (KAT) from the same donor. The LKT and KAT groups were identical with respect to most baseline parameters, save a greater degree of HLA matching in the KAT group. The overall 3-year graft survival rate was higher in the KAT group compared with the LKT group (80% vs 68%, P < 0.01). When these data were censored to remove death as a cause of graft loss and to minimize the matching effect, the 3-year survival rates were not statistically different (78% for KAT and 81% for LKT, P = NS). We conclude that the liver neither protects the kidney from rejection nor improves kidney allograft function or survival after LKT.