Nighttime Kidney Transplant From Donor With Controlled Cardiac Death: Greater Functionality at the Cost of More Complications?

Background: Kidney transplantation surgery from controlled cardiac death donor (Maastricht III) is frequently performed at night, without taking into account the accumulated fatigue that the surgical team may experience. The objective of the study is to assess whether surgical complications and the functionality of the graft in the short and long term are affected by the time of day in which kidney transplantation from controlled cardiac death donors is performed.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was carried out. Patient were classified according to the start of surgery, daytime hours (8:00 AM to 7:59 PM), and nighttime hours (8:00 PM to 7:59 AM). Baseline and intraoperative parameters, postoperative complications, and parameters related to graft functionality were analyzed.

Results: A total of 77 patients were included: 37 patients had kidney transplantations performed during the daytime (48.05%), and 40 patients had kidney transplantations performed at nighttime (51.95%). No statistically significant differences were found between the baseline characteristics of both groups except for sex (55.0% men in daytime vs 78.4% men in nighttime, P = .03) and time on pretransplant dialysis (33.1 months in daytime vs 13.8 months in nighttime, P = .008). The incidence of surgical complications and the functionality of the graft was similar in both groups; however, the surgical time was shorter in night transplants (163.2 minutes in daytime vs 136.5 minutes at nighttime, P = .0006) CONCLUSION: The performance of kidney transplants at night is not associated, either in the short or long term, with an increase in surgical complications or conditions leading to the deterioration in the functionality of the graft.