Outcome after transplantation of young patients with systemic lupus erythematosus: A report of the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study

Background. The risk of progressing to end-stage renal disease in children with lupus glomerulonephritis is 18% to 50%. Published reports of transplan tation secondary to end-stage renal failure in adult patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) demonstrate equivalent patient and graft surviva l. The purpose of this analysis is to compare patient and graft outcomes of pediatric SLE renal transplant recipients with an age-, race-, and gender- matched control group. Methods. A retrospective analysis of the North American Pediatric Renal Tra nsplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS) database identified 100 renal transplan ts performed in 94 young SLE patients. A control group of 470 children havi ng received 501 renal transplants was identified. Results. The SLE cohort was primarily female (82%), non-Caucasian (61%), ad olescents and differed from the control group in being less likely to be pr eemptively transplanted, in receiving longer pretransplant dialysis, and in being likely to have received more than five pretransplant transfusions. A fter transplantation, there were no differences seen in patient survival at 3 years (89% vs. 95%, SLE vs. control) or in overall graft failure rates ( 31% vs. 29%, SLE vs. control). There was a trend toward poorer graft surviv al in non-white SLE patients receiving living donor grafts compared with wh ite SLE patients. An increased graft failure rate was seen among those SLE cadaveric transplant recipients receiving peritoneal dialysis before transp lant compared with controls and compared with SLE patients receiving hemodi alysis. No differences were seen in rates of acute tubular necrosis or over all acute rejection incidence, although there was a significant increase in the percentage of living donor SLE patients who experienced greater than f our rejection episodes. There were nonsignificant trends toward increased g raft loss due to patient death with a functioning graft as well as increase d mortality secondary to infection in the SLE patients. Conclusions. The results of renal transplantation in young SLE patients are comparable to those seen in an age-, race- and gender-matched control grou p. The similar patient and graft survival is seen despite the SLE patients having an underlying disease with multiorgan involvement and despite receiv ing immunosuppression for potentially prolonged periods before transplantat ion. No outcome differences were seen except for an unexplained increase in the incidence of recurrent rejections (greater than or equal to4) in the l iving donor SLE patients as well as increased graft failure rate in those p atients receiving cadaveric renal transplants after a period of peritoneal dialysis. The nonsignificant trends toward increased graft failures in non- white SLE patients receiving living donor grafts, increased graft loss seco ndary to death with a functioning graft, as well as the increased mortality due to infection deserve recognition and further study.