An institutional based study of post-operative surgical complications of live related renal transplant recipients

ObjectivesThis study was done to know the frequency of surgical complications among the live related renal transplants at our institution and to analyze the different factors that may influence the occurrence of such complications.Settings and designA prospective study of 182 live related renal transplants from August 2006 to December 2008 done at our institution was designed and conducted. All patients received their kidneys from living donors who were first degree relatives. All patients were followed for a minimum one year period. Surgical complications were reported and their incidence was correlated with several pretransplant, technical and post-transplant risk factors by both univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsAmong the 182 patients, 27 surgical complications were encountered. These complications included ureteric stricture in 1 patient, lymphocele in 13 patients, deep vein thrombosis in 1 patient, vascular complications in 4 patients, wound infection in 6 patients with dehiscence in one patient in one patient and pyocoele in one patient. The incidence of urological complications was 0.5%, vascular complications 2.2% lymphocoele was 7.1% and wound infections was 3.3%. On univariate analysis, the factors that significantly affected the incidence of surgical complications were occurrence of post-transplant ATN for lymphocoeles and the number of graft renal arteries for vascular complications. On multivariate analysis, the number of graft renal arteries significantly affected the occurrence of vascular complications.ConclusionSurgical complications in live renal transplantation can be minimized if basic principles of careful transplant techniques are used. Prompt identification and treatment of any complication is paramount to graft and patient survival.