Integrated strategy for preventing delayed renal graft function

Objective: to determine the efficacy and safety of an integrated strategy aimed at preventing delayed renal graft function (DGF).Materials and methods. From June 2018 to December 2022, 478 deceased-donor kidney transplants were performed at Botkin Hospital, Moscow. The patients were divided into two groups: Group I consisted of 128 patients who did not use the integrated strategy; Group II included 67 patients in whom the DGF prevention strategy was used at the perioperative stage. The integrated strategy involved the use of hypothermic oxygenated machine perfusion (HOPE) using expanded criteria donors, the use of a second warm ischemia (SWI) elimination device, personalized initial calcineurin inhibitor (CI) dosing, and use of alprostadil for high vascular resistance in renal graft arteries.Results. DGF occurred in 5 of 44 patients (11.4%) that used the integrated strategy, and in 13 of 44 patients (29.5%) in the control group. The differences were statistically significant (p = 0.034), there was a medium strength relationship between the traits (V = 0.225). The use of the integrated DGF prevention approach reduced the chances of developing DGF by a factor of 0.3 (95% CI: 0.1–0.95). The risk of DGF in the integrated strategy group was 61.3% of the risk of DGF in the non-strategy group, thus the relative risk (RR) is 1.63 (95% CI: 1.1–2.4). Median duration of graft function normalization was statistically significantly lower in group II: 5 (IQR: 3–9) versus 15 (IQR: 7–19) days (p = 0.012). Mean length of hospital stay was 19.1 ± 4.2 (95% CI: 14.5–26.1) bed-days in group I and 13.9 ± 3.4 (95% CI: 9.3–17.2) bed-days in group II. Differences in this indicator were also statistically significant (p = 0.043).Conclusion. The set of DGF prevention measures, developed at Botkin Hospital, evidence-based and implemented in clinical practice, can reduce the burden of modifiable risk factors of this complication significantly, thereby improving treatment outcomes for kidney transplant recipients considerably.