Early Outcomes of Outpatient Management of Kidney Transplant Recipients with Coronavirus Disease 2019

Abstract

Background and objectives: Outcomes of kidney transplant recipients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 as outpatients have not been described.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements: We obtained clinical data for 41 consecutive outpatient kidney transplant recipients with known or suspected coronavirus disease 2019. Chi-squared and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to compare characteristics of patients who required hospitalization versus those who did not.

Results: Of 41 patients, 22 (54%) had confirmed coronavirus disease 2019, and 19 (46%) were suspected cases. Patients most commonly reported fever (80%), cough (56%), and dyspnea (39%). At the end of follow-up, 13 patients (32%) required hospitalization a median of 8 days (range, 1-16) after symptom onset, and 23 (56%) had outpatient symptom resolution a median of 12 days (4-23) after onset. Patients who required hospitalization were more likely to have reported dyspnea (77% versus 21%, P=0.003) and had higher baseline creatinine (median, 2.0 versus 1.3 mg/dl, P=0.02), but there were no other differences between groups.

Conclusions: In an early cohort of outpatient kidney transplant recipients with known or suspected coronavirus disease 2019, many had symptomatic resolution without requiring hospitalization.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cohort Studies; Dyspnea; Nonparametric; Outpatients; SARS-CoV2; Statistics; coronavirus; creatinine; hospitalization; kidney transplantation; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.