End-Stage Kidney Disease After Pediatric Nonrenal Solid Organ Transplantation

Abstract

Adult solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients commonly develop advanced kidney disease; however, the burden of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in children after SOT is not well-described. The objectives of this study were to determine the incidence of ESKD after pediatric SOT and the relative risk by SOT type. Retrospective multicenter cohort study of children, ages ≤ 18 years, who received SOTs from 1990 through 2010 using Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients data linked to the US Renal Data System. We performed a competing risks analysis to determine cumulative incidence of ESKD (chronic dialysis or kidney transplant), treating death as a competing risk, and fit a multivariable Cox regression model to assess hazard of ESKD by organ type. The cohort included 16,604 pediatric SOT recipients (54% liver, 34% heart, 6% lung, 6% intestine, and 1% heart-lung). During a median follow-up of 6.2 years (interquartile range 2.2-12.1), 426 (3%) children developed ESKD. Compared with liver transplant recipients, in whom the incidence of ESKD was 2.1 cases per 1000 person-years, in adjusted analyses the highest risk of ESKD was among intestinal (hazard ratio [HR] 7.37, P < .001), followed by lung (HR 5.79, P < .001) and heart transplant recipients (HR 1.79, P < .001). In a 20-year national cohort of pediatric SOT recipients, the risk of ESKD was highest among intestinal and lung transplant recipients. The burden of earlier stages of chronic kidney disease is probably much higher; modifiable risk factors should be targeted to prevent progressive kidney damage in this high-risk population.