Kidney Transplant Outcomes in elderly Recipients: An Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) Registry Study.

Background: There is an increase in elderly patients receiving kidney transplant internationally. This study describes elderly kidney transplant recipient outcomes in Australia and New Zealand.

Methods: The study included all adult first kidney transplant recipients in Australia and New Zealand from 2000 to 2015.

Investigating barriers to immunosuppressant medication adherence in renal transplant patients.

Aim: Immunosuppressant medication non-adherence can result in allograft rejection and loss. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of non-adherence and barriers to adherence with immunosuppressant medications, in an adult renal transplant cohort.

Methods: Kidney transplant recipients completed a self-report survey consisting of five validated questionnaires (Basel Assessment of Adherence to Immunosuppressive Medications Scale (BAASIS), Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire, Immunosuppressant Therapy Barrier Scale, Brief-Illness Perception Questionnaire, and Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale), and provided sociodemographic information.

Therapeutic monitoring of mycophenolate in transplantation: is it justified?

Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is the preferred antimetabolite in solid organ transplantation. It is a prodrug that undergoes pre-systemic metabolism to mycophenolic acid (MPA), the active drug moiety. MMF is typically administered as a fixed dose without routine monitoring of MPA concentrations.

Modification of cardiovascular risk in hemodialysis patients: an evidence-based review.

Cardiovascular disease accounts for 40% to 50% of deaths in dialysis populations. Overall, the risk of cardiac mortality is 10-fold to 20-fold greater in dialysis patients than in age and sex-matched controls without chronic kidney disease. The aim of this paper is to review critically the evidence that cardiac outcomes in dialysis patients are modified by cardiovascular risk factor interventions.

Randomized, controlled trial of topical exit-site application of honey (Medihoney) versus mupirocin for the prevention of catheter-associated infections in hemodialysis patients.

The clinical usefulness of hemodialysis catheters is limited by increased infectious morbidity and mortality. Topical antiseptic agents, such as mupirocin, are effective at reducing this risk but have been reported to select for antibiotic-resistant strains. The aim of the present study was to determine the efficacy and the safety of exit-site application of a standardized antibacterial honey versus mupirocin in preventing catheter-associated infections.

A randomized controlled trial of topical exit site mupirocin application in patients with tunnelled, cuffed haemodialysis catheters.

Background: Central venous catheters are frequently needed for the provision of haemodialysis, but their clinical usefulness is severely limited by infectious complications. The risk of such infections can be reduced by topical application of mupirocin to the exit sites of non-cuffed catheters or by the use of tunnelled, cuffed catheters. Whether mupirocin offers any additional protection against infection in patients with tunnelled, cuffed haemodialysis catheters has not been studied.