Restarting living donor kidney transplant during COVID-19: a single center experience

Abstract

Abstract: The decision that declared COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020 had become a medical emergency that also effects kidney transplantation program and care. Kidney transplantation has been a definitive treatment for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients since it improves patient’s quality of life. However great the beneficence is, kidney transplant procedure still carries high risk of COVID-19 infection especially for recipients who are obliged to take immunosuppression agents after transplantation.
 Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate kidney transplant procedure in Dr. Sardjito General Hospital within before and during pandemic based on recipients’ and donors’ characteristics and laboratory findings such as creatinine and urine time.
 Patients and methods: This study is designed as a cross-sectional analytic research to evaluate 30 patients that underwent kidney transplant in Dr. Sardjito General Hospital within before (April 2019-2020) and during (April 2020-2021) COVID-19 era. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS version 25.0 and were served with simple charts and tables.
 Results: There is a decrement of kidney transplant procedure within before (n=16) and during (n=14) COVID-19. Age group of recipients that underwent the most of transplantation before pandemic are 20-29 years old while during pandemic are 40-49 years old. There is no significant difference in length-of-stay within before (12.0±4.17 days) and during (9.29±3.73 days) COVID-19 (p=0,077). Laboratory findings such as creatinine of pre-transplantation (9.47±4.05; 7.81±6.00) and 3 months’ post-transplantation (1,55±0,78; 1,15±0,67) also did not show significant changes (p=0,153) as well as urine time (245.60±225.55; 428.38±657.70; p=0.321).
 Conclusion: There is a decrement of kidney transplant procedure in Dr. Sardjito General Hospital within before and during COVID-19 era. There are no significant differences found within length-of-stay, creatinine pre and 3 months’ post-transplantation and urine time. On the whole, transplant outcomes have remained similar within pre and during COVID-19 era.