Biomedicines (Mar 2022)

Bacterial and Viral Infection and Sepsis in Kidney Transplanted Patients

  • Alberto Mella,
  • Filippo Mariano,
  • Caterina Dolla,
  • Ester Gallo,
  • Ana Maria Manzione,
  • Maria Cristina Di Vico,
  • Rossana Cavallo,
  • Francesco Giuseppe De Rosa,
  • Cristina Costa,
  • Luigi Biancone

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10030701
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 3
p. 701

Abstract

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Kidney transplanted patients are a unique population with intrinsic susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections, mainly (but not exclusively) due to continuous immunosuppression. In this setting, infectious episodes remain among the most important causes of death, with different risks according to the degree of immunosuppression, time after transplantation, type of infection, and patient conditions. Prevention, early diagnosis, and appropriate therapy are the goals of infective management, taking into account that some specific characteristics of transplanted patients may cause a delay (the absence of fever or inflammatory symptoms, the negativity of serological tests commonly adopted for the general population, or the atypical anatomical presentation depending on the surgical site and graft implantation). This review considers the recent available findings of the most common viral and bacterial infection in kidney transplanted patients and explores risk factors and outcomes in septic evolution.

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