Objective: To evaluate the recovery of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) receiving kidney transplant from cardiac death donors, and to assess graft survival in China from this type of donor.
Methods: A total of 48 cases of patients with ESRD have received the kidneys from cardiac death donors in our hospital between February 2010 and March 2012. We retrospectively analyzed data on the preoperative and postoperative serum creatinine concentrations, on the survival of recipients and allografts with a view to investigating prognoses after this type of kidney transplant.
Results: Primary non-function (PNF) did not occur in any of the 48 recipients. Delayed graft function (DGF) occurred in 18 of 48 (37.5%) of kidneys from cardiac death donors, but the occurrence of DGF did not adversely influence patient's survival (P=0.098) or graft survival (P=0.447). Seven of 48 (14.6%) recipients lost their graft. Over a median follow-up period of 8 months (range 0.5-23 months), 39 of 41(95.1%) recipients' graft function had fully recovered. The actuarial graft and patient's survival rates at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after transplantation were 95.7%, 93.0%, 90.0%, 87.5%, and 100%, 94.9%, 90%, 87.5%, respectively.
Conclusion: As the legislation of donation after brain death (DBD) has not been ratified in China, the use of kidneys from cardiac death donors might be an effective way to increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation here. Our experience indicates good short- and mid-term outcomes with transplants from cardiac death donors.