INTRODUCTION:

There is a perceived feeling that elongation of the renal vein in right sided kidney grafts facilitates the vascular anastomosis. On the other hand some transplant surgeons don't take advantage of this maneuver due the to possible risk of thrombosis and hematoma formation. Hereby we explore the chance of this two events in elongated and non-elongated right sided kidney grafts.

METHODS:

From our prospective collected database of kidney transplants we identified all right sided adult deceased kidney grafts transplants performed from February 2010 to August 2014. The primary variables collected were the presence of renal vein elongation, thrombosis and hematoma formation. Secondary variables collect were age, gender, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, aspirin use, anastomotic time, smoking, and prioritization due to lack of vascular access.

RESULTS;

From a total of 3655 kidney transplants performed we identified 1135 right sided adult deceased grafts. In 72% (825/1135) the renal vein was elongated whereas in 28% (310/1135) the vein was not elongated. There were no significant differences in the secondary variables (age, gender, BMI, hypertension, diabetes, aspirin use, anastomotic time, smoking, and prioritization due to lack vascular accesses). We identified 1.3% of thrombosis in the elongated group and 1% in the non elongated group (p= 0.76 Fischer exact test). Regarding hematoma formation, in the elongated group 2.9% were found whereas 3.2% in the non-elongated group (p=0.78 chi-square test).

CONCLUSION:

According to our results we encourage transplant surgeons to elongate the renal vein of right sided grafts, if it facilitates the anastomosis, without compromising the results regarding thrombosis and hematoma formation.

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