Kidney transplant in sensitized patients: A case series from a premier teaching hospital in Malaysia

Abstract Background Kidney transplantation is associated with improved survival as opposed to long-term dialysis in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. In Malaysia, due to the limited number of cadaveric and compatible living related renal transplant (LRRT), there is a need to explore the potential of transplant with ABO-incompatible and positive donor specific antibodies (DSA). This report describes a case series of sensitized patients undergoing kidney transplant. Objective The aim of this study is to assess the immediate graft function (IGF), graft functions at the 1st month, 3rd month, 6th month and 12th month post-transplant. Graft functions were assessed using serum creatinine, protocol biopsy (at 1st, 3rd, 6th and 12th months post-transplant) and DSA level. Methods Data was collected from all sensitized kidney transplant done at the University Malaya Medical Center (UMMC) between February 2016 and April 2017. ABO-incompatible kidney transplant will be excluded from this study. The patient's progress and outcome (kidney function) are fully documented. Results Five patients were analyzed for this report. The first two patients developed antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) immediately, post-transplant. Learning from initial experience, we have adopted our own desensitization protocol and subsequent to that, all three patients had IGF. Three out of five patients have borderline rejection on protocol biopsy but did not require pulse with methylprednisolone or intensification of immunosuppression. Three patients had negative preformed DSAs at 3-month post-transplant. Conclusion Desensitization protocols may help to overcome incompatibility barriers in live-donor renal transplantation. Based on our experiences we have adopted a protocol that comprises of intravenous rituximab, plasma exchange and intravenous thymoglobulin.