Incidence of infectious complications and their risk factors in the first year after renal transplantation.

Introduction: Infectious complications significantly increase morbidity and mortality after renal transplantation. The immunosuppression used is the main risk factor and relates directly to the incidence and severity of infectious events.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study, which assessed the incidence of infections and their risk factors among 1,676 kidney transplant recipients during the first year of follow-up.

Results: Infectious events were observed in 821 (49%) patients. The mean number of infectious episodes among patients with at least one episode was 2.3 (1 -12). The most prevalent infectious complications were as follows: urinary tract infection (31.3%); cytomegalovirus infection (12%); surgical wound infection (10.3%); herpes virus infection (9.1%); pulmonary infection (5.2%); and bloodstream infection (4.3%). Cold ischemia time and the use of deceased donor grafts were important risk factors for infectious episodes.

Conclusions: Infections are highly prevalent in the first year following transplantation. The main infectious complication was urinary tract infection.