ASCITES in the CAPO Patient Post Transplant

Abstract

Our experience with CAPD patients and post-transplant ascites showed: 71 per cent of the transplanted patients required dialysis post transplant. The duration of dialysis ranged from less than one week to greater than two months. Ascites occurred in 33 per cent of the patients post transplant. Mean time of onset of the ascites was 2.8 weeks post transplant. The duration of the ascites, when ascertainable, ranged from one to three weeks. In the 8 patients who developed ascites, only one graft was lost to rejection at 3 months. There was no apparent relationship between time on CAPD and the presence of ascites. Ascites in the post-transplant CAPD patient appears to be a benign process, but the mechanism and causative factors are unclear and further investigations are warranted. A recent article from Toronto (I) stated that ascites occurred post transplantation in children but that posttransplantation ascites in adults had not been reported. This prompted our analysis of the occurrence of ascites in CAPD patients who had received a transplant at the University of Missouri-Columbia Health Sciences Center.