Medical Management of Transplant Patients

Kidney transplant is the best form of renal replacement therapy for most end-stage kidney disease patients due to improved quality of life and superior patient survival compared to chronic maintenance dialysis. Long-term outcome of kidney allograft recipients depends on the longevity of the allograft and optimal management of their comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease risk factors. According to organ procurement and transplant data in the United States, 14.5% of the deceased donor kidney wait list comprised patients who failed their first allograft and were awaiting second kidney transplant. Optimal immunosuppression management is key to both short- and long-term outcomes of allograft transplant by preventing rejection while avoiding or minimizing risk of over immunosuppression such as with infections and neoplasia. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality after kidney transplant. It accounts for approximately 50% of deaths in the post transplant period and 30% of deaths among patients with preserved renal allograft function. Hence, it is crucial to optimally manage cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes post transplant. In this chapter, we review medical management of kidney transplant recipients, including commonly used induction therapies, maintenance immunosuppressive agents, and posttransplant medical complications such as posttransplant diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, bone disease, and BK viral infection. This review contains 1 table and 47 references Key Words: kidney transplantation, immunosuppression, rejection, post transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM), BK viral infection,  calcineurin inhibitors,