The Incidence and Costs of Sepsis and Pneumonia Before and After Renal Transplantation in the United States

We compared the graft survival and accumulative costs associated with sepsis and pneumonia pre‐ and post‐transplantation. We analyzed 44 916 first kidney transplants from 1995 to 2001 USRDS where Medicare was the primary payer. We drew five cohorts for each disease from the baseline population: patients who had a disease onset in the first or second years pre‐transplantation (cohorts 1 and 2) or post‐transplantation (cohorts 3 and 4) and patients who were disease‐free (cohort 5). For each cohort, we calculated graft survival and average accumulated Medicare payments (AAMPs) for the two pre‐ and post‐transplantation years. Graft survival: new‐onset sepsis and pneumonia both significantly (p