Rate of long-term graft loss has fallen among kidney transplants from cadaveric donors

Abstract

First-year renal allograft survival has increased, but whether this is associated with improvement in the long term is controversial. We analyzed 1045 consecutive adult deceased donor kidney transplant recipients from 1986 to 2001, with a follow-up to 2011. The aim of this study was to compare the graft half-life and attrition rates stratified by year of transplant in patients who received the graft in the periods 1986 to 1995 versus 1996 to 2001. The graft half-life increased significantly in the second period (P = .000) and the rate of graft loss stratified per year of evolution fell in all the study periods (P = .0000). In addition, the study period 1996 to 2001 was significantly associated with a reduction in graft failure risk compared with 1986 to 1995 in the multivariate analysis (P = .005). In conclusion, both short- and long-term graft survival increased significantly at our center.