Plasmapheresis in the treatment of early acute kidney allograft dysfunction.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of plasmapheresis (PP) in kidney transplant recipients with acute humoral rejection (AHR).


METHODS
A retrospective review was conducted of all kidney allograft recipients who had undergone PP rescue therapy for early acute allograft dysfunction diagnosed as AHR at Shaheed Labbafinejad Medical Center from 1995 to 2002.


RESULTS
Twelve patients (4 men and 8 women; median age, 32 years; age range, 15-68 years) with AHR were treated with PP. The median time from transplantation to AHR was 6 days (range, 2-7 days). PP was performed in 2 to 11 sessions (median, 8.5 sessions) in the patients studied. Eight patients responded to that treatment, and their creatinine value normalized. Those responders were monitored for a median of 162.5 weeks (range, 69.3-484.7 weeks), and all had a functioning allograft during the follow-up period except for 1 patient in whom the graft failed 154 weeks after transplantation. In the 4 remaining patients (nonresponders), the allograft failed within the first posttransplant month. The median time from the acute serum creatinine elevation to the initiation of PP was 6 days in responders and 18.6 days in nonresponders (P = .37).


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that PP with or without other therapeutic measures may have a role in the salvage of grafts with early acute dysfunction that is resistant to conventional therapy. Our findings indicate that graft survival in patients with AHR who respond to PP can be comparable to that in other kidney recipients.
Nafar
Mohsen
M
Department of Kidney Transplantation, Shaheed Labbafinejad Medical Center, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Farrokhi
Farhat
F
Hemati
Keyvan
K
Pour-Reza-Gholi
Fatemeh
F
Firoozan
Ahmad
A
Einollahi
Behzad
B
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010956:Plasmapheresis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome