Background: From November 2003 to December 2012, in the Gdańsk Center, 64 patients received preemptive transplantation (PET). PET comprised 8% of 794 kidney transplantations performed during this time. The benefits for individual patients and for the health care system are discussed.
Methods: This study compares the outcomes of these PET patients who had their kidney pairs transplanted after a variable duration of dialysis (PTD), a total of 51 pairs.
Results: The mean Charlson comorbidity index was 2.57 vs 3.04 (P > .05) for the PET and PTD groups, respectively. Both groups did not differ significantly with respect to 1-year patient and graft survivals, and incidences of acute rejection. Five (9.8%) PET patients and 20 (39%) PTD patients experienced delayed graft function (P < .05). The graft function (serum creatinine/4p MDRD) 1 year after transplantation was similar in both groups (1.42/53.7 vs 1.43/57.4; mg/dL/mL/min/1.73 m(2)). More PET patients continued normal professional activities or education before and after transplantation (P < .05).
Conclusions: Our single-center results confirmed that for both medical and socioeconomic reasons, PET is an optimal mode of renal replacement therapy.