Infections in Renal Transplant Recipients

Infection is a major and severe penalty of immunosuppression and is associated with high mortality. In order to prevent the occurrence of infection, one should know the commonest types of infection in that particular group of patients. Hence an attempt was made to find out the present trend of infections and their incidence in renal transplant patients. The study was conducted at MS Ramaiah Hospitals, Bangalore. All the patients who underwent renal transplantation between 2002 and 2005 were followed-up for the study. Sixty-two patients who satisfied the inclusion criteria were followed for a period of 48 months. Urinary tract infection (36.11%) was the most common infection seen in the post-transplant period followed by candidiasis (16.62%) and tuberculosis (13.89%). The occurrence of acute gastroenteritis (p < 0.05) and pneumonia (p < 0.05) was statistically more in patients aged less than 40 years. Urinary tract infection (p < 0.01) was significantly higher in patients more than 40 years. Except for urinary tract infection (p < 0.05), the occurrence of all other infections in either sex had no statistical significance. Candidiasis was statistically found more in diabetics compared to non-diabetics in the pre-transplant period (p < 0.01).