Renal Replacement Therapy (Jul 2024)

Comparison of outcomes in kidney transplantations involving blood-related and non-blood-related living donors: a multicenter retrospective study by the Michinoku renal transplant network

  • Tomohiko Matsuura,
  • Moe Toyoshima,
  • Mitsuru Saitoh,
  • Hayato Nishida,
  • Shingo Hatakeyama,
  • Shinya Maita,
  • Reiichi Murakami,
  • Jun Sugimura,
  • Takaya Abe,
  • Hirofumi Tomita,
  • Hisao Saitoh,
  • Norihiko Tsuchiya,
  • Chikara Ohyama,
  • Tomonori Habuchi,
  • Wataru Obara

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41100-024-00556-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Background This study aimed to compare the outcomes of living donor kidney transplantation with blood- and non-blood-related donors across multiple facilities. Previous reports comparing these outcomes have been single-center studies. As the donors were the recipients’ spouses in all cases with non-blood-related donors, we independently compared the outcomes of wife-to-husband (WTH) and husband-to-wife (HTW) transplantations. No previous multicenter studies have compared transplant outcomes between spouses in this manner. Methods This retrospective study used a shared database including 643 cases from 6 facilities that primarily used tacrolimus as a calcineurin inhibitor. We used propensity score matching to compare the outcomes of transplantations with blood- and non-blood-related donors and those of WTH and HTW transplantations. Results Of the 643 cases examined, 381 and 262 had blood- and non-blood-related donors, respectively. All non-blood-related donor cases had spouses as donors. After propensity score matching, 84 cases each were selected from the blood- and non-blood-related donor groups for comparison, with no significant intergroup difference in the time to graft loss. Among the 262 interspousal transplantations, 91 were HTW transplantations and 171 were WTH transplantations. Following propensity score matching, 58 cases each were selected from the WTH and HTW groups for comparison, with no significant intergroup difference in the time to graft loss. Conclusions In this large multicenter retrospective study, no significant differences were observed in the outcomes of transplantations with blood- and non-blood-related donors. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the outcomes of WTH and HTW cases. Many centers that use tacrolimus-based four-drug immunosuppressive therapy may have similar trends as those observed in this study, making our findings significant for planning transplantation involving kidneys donated from patients’ spouses.

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