Spinal surgery following renal transplantation.

BACKGROUND: With the improvement in postoperative care for renal transplant patients, the number of patients requiring spinal surgery after renal transplantation has been increasing. However, there have been only a few reports describing the results of spinal surgery in renal transplant recipients. In this study, we investigated the results of spine surgery in renal transplant recipients.

METHODS: A total of 37 renal transplant recipients who underwent spinal surgery in our hospital between April 2003 and July 2012 were included in this study.

RESULTS: Perioperative complications were observed in 6 cases (16.2%). Two of them (5.3%) were general complications including duodenal ulcer and acute renal failure. The other four complications (10.8%) were directly related to surgery, namely, epidural hematoma, neurological deterioration and two surgical site infections. No patient required permanent hemodialysis postoperatively. Twenty-five fusion surgeries were performed and pseudoarthrosis was observed in 3 cases (12.0%).

CONCLUSION: Spinal surgery in renal transplant recipients can be performed without major complications or requirement for permanent hemodialysis postoperatively. Our data also showed a high rate of surgical site infection and pseudoarthrosis after fusion surgery.