Objectives. The current need to evaluate necessity and cost of diagnos
tic and therapeutic procedures extends to transplant services. We revi
ewed our experience over the past 3 years as we have moved away from r
outine post-transplant nuclear medicine scans, ultrasounds, and cystog
rams. Methods. From January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1994, 252 kidney t
ransplants were performed at Virginia Mason Medical Center. There were
74 live donor and 178 cadaver donor kidneys transplanted. The records
of these patients were reviewed for the type and number of post-trans
plant imaging done during their initial hospitalization. Results. Duri
ng the study period, the number of post-transplant imaging studies per
patient decreased from 2.7 to 1.4 (P = 0.000), the percentage of pati
ents discharged without any studies rose from 2.8% to 24.4% (P = 0.001
), and the trend in 1-year actual graft survival increased from 84.7%
to 93.0% (P = 0.187). Conclusions. Post-transplant imaging studies can
be safely reduced. Many patients with good initial graft function can
avoid having any studies. (C) 1997, Elsevier Science Inc. All rights
reserved.