Gastrointestinal complications in renal transplant recipients: MITOS study.
METHODS
An epidemiologic multicenter study was performed to evaluate the prevalence and management of gastrointestinal (GI) complications in solid organ transplant patients. A total of 1788 recipients were included, 1132 of which corresponded to renal transplanted patients.


RESULTS
The mean age for the renal transplanted patients was 52 +/- 13.2 years. The mean time from the transplantation was 5.4 +/- 5.4 years. 17.7% showed some pretransplant GI disease, while 53% presented this type of complication in the posttransplant period. Diarrhea was the most prevalent GI complication (51.5%) and digestive perforation was the GI disorder that affected the patients daily living the most. From the patients with GI complications, 71% received pharmacological treatment, using gastric protectors in 91.3% of the cases. Regarding immunosuppressive drugs, in 30.9% of the cases the dose of the drug was reduced, in 9.3% discontinued temporarily and in 7.5% discontinued permanently. These changes mainly affected the MMF (89%, 83% and 74% for dose change, temporary and permanent discontinuation, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of GI complications in renal transplant exceeded 50%, and affected patients' daily living. The management of these complications was based on treatment with gastric protectors, dose reduction and/or partial or definitive MMF discontinuation.
Gil-Vernet
S
S
H. Bellvitge, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. sgilvernet@csub.scs.es
Amado
A
A
Ortega
F
F
Alarcón
A
A
Bernal
G
G
Capdevila
L
L
Crespo
J F
JF
Cruzado
J M
JM
De Bonis
E
E
Esforzado
N
N
Fernandez
A M
AM
Franco
A
A
Hortal
L
L
Jiménez
C
C
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology
D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents