Impact of pretransplant dialysis on early graft function in pediatric kidney recipients

Summary Delayed graft function (DGF) is a frequent complication of kidney transplantation (KT) that may affect both short‐ and long‐term graft outcome. It has been reported that pretransplantation peritoneal dialysis was correlated with a better recovery of graft function than hemodialysis in adult kidney recipients. However, the effect of pretransplantation dialysis mode (PDM) seemed to be unclear on the early outcome of KT in pediatric recipients. In this study, the potential impact of PDM on early graft function was evaluated in 174 pediatric patients who underwent KT by using cadaveric donors. The primary outcome parameter was the time to reach a serum creatinine (SCr) level 50% of the pretransplantation value [T1/2(SCr)], while DGF was defined as a T1/2(SCr) >3 days after KT (n = 40). By stratifying kidney recipients for normal function graft or DGF, this latter group showed a significantly higher body weight (BW) on the day of KT (P = 0.014), body surface area (BSA) (P = 0.005), warm ischemia time (WIT) (P = 0.022), early SCr on the day 1 after KT (P