Abstract

Introduction. Immunosuppression for renal transplantation has shifted from azathioprine (AZA) regimens to those containing mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). This study investigated the impact of this change on the causes for rehospitalization as well as on graft and patient survival. Methods. In this retrospective cohort study, we reviewed long-term patient and graft survivals as well as the causes of posttransplant admissions for 893 kidney recipients. Data on survival and readmissions were available for 811 subjects, who were divided to into the AZA cohort (n = 289, transplantation between 1998 and 1999) and the MMF cohort (n = 567, transplantation between 2000 and 2001). Survival, the cause for readmission, time interval between transplantation and readmission, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mortality, and graft loss were compared between the two cohorts. Results. Five-year patient and graft survival rates were 85 and 67 for the AZA cohort and 91 and 68 for the MMF cohort (P = .013). There were 202 (71) and 371 (72) readmissions registered for the AZA and MMF groups, respectively. In comparison with the AZA cohort, while readmissions secondary to graft rejection showed a significant decrease in the MMF cohort (62 vs 35, P = .000), readmissions secondary to infections exhibited a significant increase (37 vs 50, P = .002). A marginally significant increased mortality rate (2 vs 5, P = .087) and ICU admission rate (3 vs 6, P = .062) were also observed in the MMF cohort by comparison with the AZA cohort. Conclusion. The shift in the immunosuppression protocol from AZA to MMF, albeit advantageous in many instances, can sometimes undermine the outcome by giving rise to such complications as high infection rates.