Organ Transplantation Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Organ Transplantation, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery.

Pregnancy in renal transplant recipients: long-term effect on patient and graft survival. A single-center experience.

Rahamimov R, Ben-Haroush A, Wittenberg C, Mor E, Lustig S, Gafter U, Hod M, Bar J

Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, Petach Tikva, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

BACKGROUND: There are limited data on the effect of pregnancy on long-term renal allograft function. The aim of the study was to compare long-term graft and patient outcome between pregnant and nonpregnant women after renal transplantation. METHODS: The study group consisted of 39 women attending the Perinatal Division of the Rabin Medical Center who conceived after undergoing renal transplantation (total number of live births: 55). All had a functioning allograft at the time of conception. Each patient was matched with 3 controls for 12 factors known to affect graft survival. The controls were derived from a cohort of 250,000 transplant patients registered in the Collaborative Transplantation Study (CTS) database. The groups were compared for graft survival, long-term patient survival, and kidney function (CTS clinical grading scale). RESULTS: Graft (61.6%) and patient (84.8 %) survival from transplantation to the end of follow-up (15 years) in the women who conceived after transplantation did not differ from the rates observed in the 177 women in the matched control group (68.7% and 78.8 %, respectively). There were no between-group differences in long-term graft function. CONCLUSION: Pregnancy does not appear to have adverse effects on long-term graft or patient survival or kidney function in women after renal transplantation.

Published 14 March 2006 in Transplantation, 81(5): 660-4.
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