Urinary tract infections beyond the early post-transplant period in pediatric renal graft recipients.
BACKGROUND
Urinary tract infection is a frequent bacterial complication after renal transplantation in adults and children, however there are only very limited data on children beyond the early post-transplant period. In this study we investigated urinary tract infections in pediatric outpatients who had received transplants more than six months previously. Incidence, risk factors and impact on short-term graft function were analyzed.


METHODS
47 children who had received a total of 58 allografts were analyzed between 1997 and 2000. At the time of analysis they had had their transplants for an average of 3.5 years (range 0.5-9.4). Urinary tract infection was defined as the presence of both significant bacteriuria (> 10(5) CFU/ml) and symptoms.


RESULTS
Of the 47 patients, 15 (32%) had from 1 to 7 urinary tract infections each. In total 35 infections were recorded. Median age at urinary tract infection was 5.5 years (range 1.8-24.2). Gender, donor source, immunosuppression and underlying disease (urologic vs non-urologic) did not influence the incidence of urinary tract infection. Creatinine but not C-reactive protein rose significantly during the infection.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data suggest that urinary tract infection remains a frequent but mostly benign complication in the pediatric transplant population, even beyond the early post-transplant period. More extended studies are needed to assess the long-term effects on graft function.
Mueller
Thomas
T
Universitätsklinik für Kinder- und Jugendheilkunde, AKH Wien, Vienna, Austria.
Resinger
Christoph
C
Ruffingshofer
Dagmar
D
Arbeiter
Klaus
K
Balzar
Egon
E
Aufricht
Christoph
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*