Impact of deceased donor acute kidney injury (AKI) on renal transplant outcomes

Abstract

Aims: Donor AKI is a common reason for discarding deceased donor kidneys due to uncertainty regarding transplant outcomes. Our study investigated the effect of AKI in donor kidneys on post-transplantation outcomes. Method(s): Medline, Embase, Cochrane and Web of Science were searched. Risk of bias assessment was performed. 2984 studies were identified by the search, 34 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 103,529 kidney transplants were analysed, 97,165 (94 %) with and 6364 (6 %) without donor AKI. Result(s): There was no significant difference between recipients of grafts from donors with terminal serum creatinine >2.0 mg/dl and 2.0 than to non-AKI recipients (RR: 1.89, CI: 1.64-2.17, P < 0.01). In studies that compared the severity of AKI stage using the AKIN criteria, there was no significant difference in 1 year post-transplantation serum creatinine even between recipients of grafts from the most severe AKI stage (AKIN3) and the non-AKI group (AKIN0) (MD: -0.01, CI:-0.17-0.16, P = 0.92). Conclusion(s): Donor AKI is associated with a higher incidence of DGF but has no effect on post-transplant patient and graft survival and, based on this analysis, should not be a sole reason for discarding kidneys.Copyright © 2025 The Authors