Background: With the obesity epidemic, there is an increased prevalence of obesity amongst patients with ESRD. Controversy exists regarding post-transplant outcomes in obese kidney transplant recipients. This study aims at evaluating the impact of recipient obesity on renal transplant outcomes in a single transplant center. Methods: Between January 2004 to January 2015, we performed 2,101 kidney transplants on recipients 18 years or older. A retrospective chart review was conducted comparing 1, 3 and 5-year patient and graft survival; incidence of delayed graft function (DGF); and biopsy proven rejection amongst two groups of patients based on the body mass index (BMI) at time of transplant. Group 1 consisted of patients with BMI ≥ 38, Group 2 consisted of patients with BMI < 38. Results: There were 216 patients in Group 1 and 1885 patients in Group 2. Forty-eight percent of patients in Group 1 and 52% of patients in Group 2 had living donor kidney transplants, and this difference had no statistical significance. Group 2 had significantly higher percentage of patients who underwent a re-transplant (14.9% vs. 7.9%, P=0.004). There was no significant difference in patient survival for Group 1 compared with Group 2 (94.5%, 91% & 87% 1, 3 & 5 year survival for Group 1 compared with 95%, 89% & 83% 1, 3 & 5 year survival for Group 2 , P= 0.415). Similarly, 1, 3 & 5-year death censored graft survival was 93%, 87.8% & 83.1% for Group 1 vs. 96.8%, 91.3% & 86.2 % for Group 2 (P= 0.065). The incidence of early graft loss, defined as graft loss within 30 days of transplant excluding death with a functioning graft, was 1.9% for Group 1 and 1.1% for Group 2 , this was not statistically significant. The incidence of DGF was 6.5% in Group 1 vs. 4% in Group 2 (P=0.105), when the two groups were compared based on the type of kidney donor; 1.9% of recipients of living donor kidneys in Group 1 had DGF vs. 1.6% in Group 2 (P=0.686) and 10.7% of recipients of deceased donor kidneys in Group 1 had DGF vs. 6.6% in Group 2 (P=0.116). The incidence of biopsy proven rejection was significantly higher in Group 1 at 20% vs. 14% in Group 2 (P=0.026). Conclusion: We found no significant difference in patient survival, graft survival or incidence of DGF when comparing obese to non-obese recipients. We believe that obese recipients should not be declined access to kidney transplantation basedsolely on their BMI.

CITATION INFORMATION: El-Hinnawi A, Rajab A, Bumgardner G, Haj Naser L, Plews R, James I, Henry M, Pelletier R. Outcomes of Kidney Transplantation in Obese Recipients – Single Center Experience. Am J Transplant. 2016;16 (suppl 3).

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