Patterns of ocular morbidity among kidney transplant recipients in Ethiopia

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Of all organ transplant procedures renal transplantation has become a very successful and routine procedure. Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College is a pioneer and is the only center providing kidney transplant in Ethiopia. Even if this is a life changing and exiting addition to the countries’ health service coverage, its long term outcomes including various complications is not yet assessed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe ocular morbidities among kidney transplant recipients in Ethiopia. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> Cross sectional descriptive study was undertaken from October 2017 to December 2018. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> There were a total of 135 individuals who underwent renal transplant procedure including 95 (70.4%) male and 40 (29.6 %) female. The median age was 32 years. The cause of renal diseases is not known in majority 112 (83%) of the study subjects. More than 95% of all the study subjects were on multiple immunosuppressant therapy. Of all the individuals examined 128 (94.8%) of them have one or more ocular morbidities. Dry eye 76 (50.7%), optic neuropathies 12 (8%), retinal pigmentary changes 11 (7.3%) and cataract 9 (6%) were frequently observed eye morbidities. There were no significant sight threatening conditions observed in relation to the immunosuppressive therapy or the diseases itself.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Dry eye is the commonest eye morbidity among kidney transplant patients.</p>