Pregnancy in Renal Transplant Recipients: Long-term Effect on Patient and Graft Survival. A Single-center Experience

Background: There are limited data on the effect of pregnancy on long-term renal allograft function. The aim of the study was to compare long-term graft and patient outcome between pregnant and nonpregnant women after renal transplantation.

Methods: The study group consisted of 39 women attending the Perinatal Division of the Rabin Medical Center who conceived after undergoing renal transplantation (total number of live births: 55). All had a functioning allograft at the time of conception. Each patient was matched with 3 controls for 12 factors known to affect graft survival. The controls were derived from a cohort of 250,000 transplant patients registered in the Collaborative Transplantation Study (CTS) database. The groups were compared for graft survival, long-term patient survival, and kidney function (CTS clinical grading scale).

Results: Graft (61.6%) and patient (84.8 %) survival from transplantation to the end of follow-up (15 years) in the women who conceived after transplantation did not differ from the rates observed in the 177 women in the matched control group (68.7% and 78.8 %, respectively). There were no between-group differences in long-term graft function.

Conclusion: Pregnancy does not appear to have adverse effects on long-term graft or patient survival or kidney function in women after renal transplantation.