Introduction: The incidence of delayed graft function (DGF) is variable according to donor/recipients demographics. It is still unclear the influence of DGF on clinical outcomes after renal transplantation. This study investigated the influence of DGF and its duration on patient and kidney allograft survivals.

Methods: This retrospective analysis evaluated the impact of DGF and duration of DGF on 1-year graft and patient survivals of all deceased donor kidney transplants performed between 1998 and 2008 in a single center (n=1,412). DGF was defined as the need for dialysis during the first week after transplantation and duration of DGF was computed up from the day of transplantation to the last dialysis section.

Results: The population was composed predominantly by men (54.9%), Caucasian (49.5%), with a mean age of 41.1 years. The mean donor age was 36.9 years with 16.6% expanded criteria donors and mean cold ischemia time of 23.1 hours. The incidence of DGF was 57.3%. Patient survival was 94.2% and there were no differences between patients with or without DGF. Overall graft survival was 88.2% and patients who presented DGF had inferior graft survival (83.1 vs. 95.7%, p <0,001). Importantly, inferior patient and graft survival were observed only in patients whose DGF lasted more than 15 days.

Conclusion: In this cohort of kidney transplant recipients with high incidence of DGF 1-year graft and patient survivals were significantly inferior only among those with prolonged DGF of more than 15 days.

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