To study the effect of pretransplant blood transfusions (PTBT) and HLA-DR matching on the outcome of KT in 149 renal transplant patients done in our hospital between December 1998 and November 2004 with a follow-up of 1 year. Study Patients were divided in 4 groups: Group A (100 patients) with PTBT<2 units and 0 or 1 DR matching, Group B (26 patients) with PTBT>= 2 and 0 or 1 DR matching, Group C (19 patients) with PTB <2 and 2 DR matching and Group D (4 patients) with PTB >= 2 and 2 DR matching. All demographic, epidemiological, immunological and medical data in this retrospective study were compiled and analyzed by SPSS11.0.
The rate of acute rejection, rate of delayed graft function, length of hospital stay, creatinine blood level upon discharge and the 1-year graft and patient survival were comparable between the 4 groups. However, creatinine blood level at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months were the lowest in the Group B and the highest in Group D (p<0.05). The PTBT effect clearly does exist on the kidney graft function at 1 year without improving the patient or the graft survival. This beneficial effect does occur when 2 or more PTBT were administered (p <0.05 between Groups B and A, and p< 0.05 between Groups B and C) except in 2 DR matched transplant patients (p=NS between Groups B and D and p=NS between Groups D and C). We conclude that, even in this new era of immunosuppression protocols, PTBT should not be abandoned unless patients receive zero DR mismatched kidneys. Further follow-up is needed to evaluate the long term effect of PTBT and DR matching.