KIDNEY ALLOGRAFT SURVIVAL - RELATIONSHIP TO DIALYSIS COMPLIANCE AND OTHER BEHAVIORS

The pretransplant dialysis records of 154 kidney transplant recipients were retrospectively reviewed to determine differences between 77 pat ients with graft loss and 77 matched patients without graft loss. A to tal of 1,601 dialysis unit patient visits were examined. Patients who had a history of alcohol abuse recorded in their charts were at a sign ificantly greater risk to lose their grafts. Difficulty with keeping a ppointments occurred twice as frequently in the lost-graft group. Olde r patients were at greater risk for loosing their grafts than were you nger ones. Thus, there are markers present in the dialysis patient's m edial record and history which may be useful when making a decision re garding a transplant candidate's potential for noncompliance to the tr ansplant regimen.