Preliminary Results of a Newly Established Organ Transplantation Program in a Teaching Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: End-stage renal disease is the complete failure of kidney function; kidney transplant offers the best survival advantage. We analyzed data from Al-Basheer Hospital's newly established transplant program and present our kidney transplant results from the first year of operation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between April 2015 and June 2016, 20 kidney transplants were performed (19 living-related donors and 1 deceased donor). We assessed the demographic data, surgical techniques employed, complications, immunosuppressive drugs used, and graft and patient survival rates. The mean recipient age was 32.8 years. There were 10 male and 10 female patients. Two patients underwent preemptive transplant, and 18 were on hemodialysis. Preparation of the donor and recipient employed an established transplant protocol. Induction immunosuppression therapy was used in 13.65% of patients. The left kidney was used from all living donors, and the right kidney was harvested from the deceased donor. The total ischemia time in the living-donor grafts ranged from 30 to 53 minutes; in the deceased donor, the ischemia time was 90 minutes. Intraoperative Doppler ultrasonography was used in most cases.

RESULTS: There was no donor mortality, and no significant donor complications occurred, either intraoperatively or postoperatively. There was no recipient mortality, but there were complications in 6 patients. Intraoperative complications were reported in 2 patients: 1 with renal artery thrombosis and the other with external iliac artery dissection. Postoperative complications were reported in 4 patients: slow graft function in 1 patient with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, 1 patient with acute cellular rejection treated with intravenous immunoglobulin, 1 patient with cytomegalovirus gastroenteritis, and 1 patient treated for varicella pneumonitis. The follow-up ranged from 1 week to 13 months.

CONCLUSIONS: The first-year outcomes for our newly established transplant program at Al-Basheer Hospital are comparable to those of well-established programs.