Bleeding Complications in Pediatric ABO-incompatible Kidney Transplantation

Background: ABO-incompatible renal transplantation (ABOi-RTx) following preconditioning with immunoadsorption (IA) and rituximab is a promising approach to facilitate living-related RTx. However, clinical experience is limited in pediatric patients.

Methods: Three patients underwent living-related ABOi-RTx in our center. Preoperative IA was performed six, ten and 11 times in patient one, two and three, respectively, to achieve isoagglutinin titers of ≤1:8 on the day of transplantation; rituximab was administered once. The immunosuppressive regimen further comprised tacrolimus, mycophenolate, methylprednisolone and basiliximab; immunoglobulin G (IgG) was infused on the day of ABOi-RTx.

Results: All three patients achieved normal renal function within 2-6 days post-RTx. Major postoperative bleeding occurred in two patients, with one requiring repeated blood transfusions and the other a surgical revision 4 h after RTx, despite local citrate anticoagulation use during the preoperative IA procedures in the latter patient. A pyelonephritis-associated increase of the isoagglutinin IgG/IgM titers to 1:64/1:128 led to a biopsy-proven acute humoral rejection in the third patient, which was treated successfully with plasma exchange and methylprednisolone pulses. The estimated glomerular filtration rate at 18, 8 and 23 months post-RTx was 96, 52 and 74 ml/min/1.73 m(2), respectively.

Conclusions: ABOi-RTx can successfully be performed in pediatric patients after preconditioning with quadruple immunosuppression, rituximab and IA. Caution is required regarding bleeding complications, which are most likely due to the unspecific binding of coagulation factors during repeated IA.