Decreased incidence of acute rejection without increased incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in kidney transplant recipients receiving rabbit anti‐thymocyte globulin without CMV prophylaxis – a cohort single‐center study

Summary Induction therapy with rabbit anti‐thymocyte globulin (rATG) in low‐risk kidney transplant recipients (KTR) remains controversial, given the associated increased risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. This natural experiment compared 12‐month clinical outcomes in low‐risk KTR without CMV prophylaxis (January/3/13–September/16/15) receiving no induction or a single 3 mg/kg dose of rATG. We used logistic regression to characterize delayed graft function (DGF), negative binomial to characterize length of hospital stay (LOS), and Cox regression to characterize acute rejection (AR), CMV infection, graft loss, death, and hospital readmissions. Recipients receiving 3 mg/kg rATG had an 81% lower risk of AR (aHR 0.140.190.25, P