Does the Presence of Renal Vascular Variation in the Renal Allograft Determine the Outcome of Renal Transplantation? Experience from the National Kidney Transplantation Center, Ethiopia

Background: Renal transplantation is the treatment of choice for people who suffer from end stage renal disease. Renal vascular anatomy is known for presenting a wide range of variations. Kidneys with variant renal vascular anatomy when used as a graft appear to be a potential risk factor that could impair the outcome of kidney transplantation. Information on renal vascular variations and its implication in the surgical outcome of renal transplantation has not been well studied. Hence, the present study was aimed to evaluate the outcomes of transplantation of renal allografts with variant renal vasculature as compared to allografts without renal vascular variation in the national kidney transplantation center of Ethiopia. Methods: A health institution based cross-sectional study was conducted. A retrospective review of the medical records of kidney recipients was performed. A total of 120 renal transplant recipient’s medical records were evaluated. Chi-square test and Independent t test was used to compare the surgical outcomes of renal transplantation. Graft survival was expressed using Kaplan-Meier curves, and was compared using the log-rank test. P values less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result: Evaluation of the renal transplant outcomes did not have shown a significant difference in the postoperative complication rate, rate of delayed graft function (DGF), creatinine clearance levels at 1 , 6, or 12 months postoperatively, and 1-year graft survival among recipients of allografts with and without renal vascular variations. However, operation time and the length of hospital stay were significantly longer among recipients of allografts with variant vasculature. Conclusion: No significant difference was noted in the outcomes of transplantation of renal allografts with and without vascular variations. Hence, renal allografts with vascular variations are safe to be recruited for transplantation as to this study.