Journal Article

Poor Long-Term Outcome in Second Kidney Transplantation: A Delayed Event

Foucher, Yohann, Trébern-Launay, Katy, Kreis, Henri, Kessler, Michèle, Rostaing, Lionel, Soulillou, Jean-Paul, Legendre, Christophe, Kamar, Nassim, Mourad, Georges, Dantal, Jacques, Ladrière, Marc, Morelon, Emmanuel, Giral, Magali, Garrigue, Valérie

2012

Overview

Old studies reported a worse outcome for second transplant recipient (STR) than for first transplant recipient (FTR) mainly due to non-comparable populations with numbers confounding factors. More recent analysis, based on improved methodology by using multivariate regressions, challenged this generally accepted idea: the poor prognosis for STR is still under debate. To assess the long-term patient-and-graft survival of STR compared to FTR, we performed an observational study based on the French DIVAT prospective cohort between 1996 and 2010 (N = 3103 including 641 STR). All patients were treated with a CNI, an mTOR inhibitor or belatacept in addition to steroids and mycophenolate mofetil for maintenance therapy. Patient-and-graft survival and acute rejection episode (ARE) were analyzed using Cox models adjusted for all potential confounding factors such as pre-transplant anti-HLA immunization. We showed that STR have a higher risk of graft failure than FTR (HR = 2.18, p = 0.0013) but that this excess risk was observed after few years of transplantation. There was no significant difference between STR and FTR in the occurrence of either overall ARE (HR = 1.01, p = 0.9675) or steroid-resistant ARE (HR = 1.27, p = 0.4087). The risk of graft failure following second transplantation remained consistently higher than that observed in first transplantation after adjusting for confounding factors. The rarely performed time-dependent statistical modeling may explain the heterogeneous conclusions of the literature concerning second transplantation outcomes. In clinical practice, physicians should not consider STR and FTR equally.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Analysis / Cohort Studies / Complications and side effects / Dosage and administration / France - epidemiology / Graft rejection / Graft Rejection - epidemiology / Graft Survival - physiology / Grafting / Grafts / Hemodialysis / Histocompatibility antigen HLA / Humans / Immunization / Immunology / Kidney transplantation / Kidney Transplantation - adverse effects / Kidney Transplantation - mortality / Kidney transplants / Kidneys / Mathematical models / Mathematics / Medical personnel / Medical prognosis / Medicine / Mortality / Mycophenolate mofetil / Mycophenolic acid / Observational studies / Patient outcomes / Physicians / Proportional Hazards Models / Regression analysis / Reoperation / Risk factors / Statistical models / Steroid hormones / Steroids / Survival / Survival Analysis / Time Factors / TOR protein / Transplantation / Transplants & implants / Treatment Outcome