ISLAMABAD: According to a recent study, a kidney transplant prolongs the lives of not only those patients, who have recently initiated dialysis, but also those who have been undergoing dialysis for more than a decade.
The findings indicate that patients, who may not have been referred for transplantation, should be re-evaluated.
John Gill, from the University of British Columbia and Vancouver's Providence Health Care, and his colleagues, examined whether patients, who receive transplants after a prolonged treatment with dialysis derive a similar survival benefit as those who undergo transplantation earlier, Medical Xpress reported.
"Because of the recent changes in the allocation policy, patients not previously wait-listed for many years can rapidly access transplantation if they are referred for it and accepted onto a waiting list," said Dr. Gill.
The researchers suspected that the benefit might not be the same because pre-transplant dialysis exposure is associated with inferior post-transplant kidney survival.
The team analysed 5,365 patients and determined the risk of death in recipients of a deceased donor kidney transplant
after 10 or more years of dialysis treatment compared with wait-listed patients, who continued to undergo dialysis.
The patients were followed for at least five years.
The overall death rate for patients, who underwent transplantation was 3.9 per 100 patient-years, compared with 5.8 per 100 person-years for patients, who continued on dialysis.
After adjustments, the transplant recipients had a 40 per cent lower risk of dying than patients on dialysis, who had equal lengths of follow-up from their 10-year dialysis anniversary.
Transplant recipients were at a higher risk of death for 180 days after transplantation, however, and they did not derive survival benefit until 657 days after transplantation, despite receiving good quality kidneys.
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