title: Kidney transplant with multiple renal artery grafts from deceased donors: are long-term graft and patient survival compromised?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Kidneys with multiple arteries are often transplanted. However, the long-term outcome of such kidneys recovered exclusively from deceased donors is not clear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether use of renal grafts with multiple arteries affects long-term graft survival and function.
  
  
  METHODS
  The outcomes of 259 consecutive kidney transplants between 1996 and 2000 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 groups, multiple renal artery graft recipients (n = 70) and single renal artery graft recipients (n = 189). Short-term complications and long-term outcomes (survival rates, blood pressure after transplant, creatinine clearance, and proteinuria levels at 1, 3, 5, and 7 years after transplant) were compared between the 2 groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Early vascular complications were more common (P = .02) in multiple artery graft recipients (18.6%) than in single artery graft recipients (7.9%), mainly because of occlusion of a polar artery in grafts with multiple renal arteries (7.1%). Urologic complications were no more frequent in one group than in the other (5.7% vs 5.3%; P = .89). The 2 groups did not differ significantly (P = .33) in long-term graft survival, with a median follow-up of 9.05 years (range, 0.1-12.7 years). Mean (SD) for creatinine clearance (59.4 [22.6] vs 55.9 [20.3] mL/min; P = .47), proteinuria (0.77 [2.1] vs 0.4 [0.8] g/24 h; P = .19), and systolic blood pressure (133.6 [14.5] vs 133.7 [17.5] mm Hg; P = .85) did not differ significantly between the 2 groups 7 years after transplant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Kidney transplant with grafts containing multiple renal arteries rather than grafts with a single renal artery does not significantly influence patient and graft outcomes.
authors.affiliation: University François Rabelais, Tours, France. inasslaouad@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: Inass
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Laouad
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bretagnol
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fabre
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Halimi
authors.forename: Azmi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Najjar
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Boutin
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bruyère
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nivet
authors.forename: Yvon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lebranchu
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Büchler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012077:Renal Artery / Q000637:transplantation*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult