Case series: Transplantation of kidneys from donors with renal artery aneurysm

Abstract

With the present disparity between organ availability and recipient demands, we reported our experience in transplanting kidneys with renal artery aneurysm after back-table reconstruction. Four patients were identified. The repair consisted of excision of the aneurysm with ostial closure, and for one of the cases, an ovarian vein patch was used. We reviewed the safety and outcomes of this procedure. All donors were asymptomatic before surgery and were diagnosed incidentally during living donor evaluation. The nephrectomies performed were hand-assisted laparoscopic approaches. All recipients had followup renal function and ultrasound duplex of renal artery at six and 12 months and then annually. The mean age of the recipients was 28.7 years (range 3-45). The mean size of the aneurysm was 7.4 ± 2.7 mm. All patients had immediate graft function with median serum creatinine of 1.9 ± 1.5 mg/dL at discharge. The average length of hospital stay was 6.25 ± 2.6 days. They also maintained good renal function with an average estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 102.8 mL/min/1.73m2 (range 53.4-199 mL/min/1.73m2) and patent vessels at one year. One patient suffered from acute antibody-mediated rejection and lost his graft (medication non-compliance). One patient had two simultaneous benign renal cysts that were resected. Three of the kidneys were right-sided and one left. Mean cold ischemia time was 86 ± 18 minutes. No deaths have been recorded. Transplanting kidneys with a renal artery aneurysm after ex-vivo repair is safe and the outcomes are encouraging. Also, it may play an important role in expanding the donor pool in the face of current organ shortage.