BACKGROUND Young women wishing to become living kidney donors frequently ask whether nephrectomy will affect their future pregnancies. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of living kidney donors involving 85 women (131 pregnancies after cohort entry) who were matched in a 1:6 ratio with 510 healthy nondonors from the general population (788 pregnancies after cohort entry). Kidney donations occurred between 1992 and 2009 in Ontario, Canada, with follow-up through linked health care databases until March 2013. Donors and nondonors were matched with respect to age, year of cohort entry, residency (urban or rural), income, number of pregnancies before cohort entry, and the time to the first pregnancy after cohort entry. The primary outcome was a hospital diagnosis of gestational hypertension or preeclampsia. Secondary outcomes were each component of the primary outcome examined separately and other maternal and fetal outcomes. RESULTS Gestational hypertension or preeclampsia was more common among living kidney donors than among nondonors (occurring in 15 of 131 pregnancies [11%] vs. 38 of 788 pregnancies [5%]; odds ratio for donors, 2.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 5.0; P = 0.01). Each component of the primary outcome was also more common among donors (odds ratio, 2.5 for gestational hypertension and 2.4 for preeclampsia). There were no significant differences between donors and nondonors with respect to rates of preterm birth (8% and 7%, respectively) or low birth weight (6% and 4%, respectively). There were no reports of maternal death, stillbirth, or neonatal death among the donors. Most women had uncomplicated pregnancies after donation. CONCLUSIONS Gestational hypertension or preeclampsia was more likely to be diagnosed in kidney donors than in matched nondonors with similar indicators of baseline health. (Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and others.)

New staging systems for CKD account for both reduced eGFR and albuminuria; whether each measure associates with greater risk of hemorrhage is unclear. In this retrospective cohort study (2002-2010), we grouped 516,197 adults ≥40 years old by eGFR (≥90, 60 to <90, 45 to <60, 30 to <45, 15 to <30, or <15 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)) and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR; >300, 30-300, or <30 mg/g) to examine incidence of hemorrhage. The 3-year cumulative incidence of hemorrhage increased 20-fold across declining eGFR and increasing urine ACR groupings (highest eGFR/lowest ACR: 0.5%; lowest eGFR/highest ACR: 10.1%). Urine ACR altered the association of eGFR with hemorrhage (P<0.001). In adjusted models using the highest eGFR/lowest ACR grouping as the referent, patients with eGFR=15 to <30 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) had adjusted relative risks of hemorrhage of 1.9 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.5 to 2.4) with the lowest ACR and 3.7 (95% CI, 3.0 to 4.5) with the highest ACR. Patients with the highest eGFR/highest ACR had an adjusted relative risk of hemorrhage of 2.3 (95% CI, 1.8 to 2.9), comparable with the risk for patients with the lowest eGFR/lowest ACR. The associations attenuated but remained significant after adjustment for anticoagulant and antiplatelet use in patients ≥66 years old. The risk of hemorrhage differed by urine ACR in high risk subgroups. Our data show that declining eGFR and increasing albuminuria each independently increase hemorrhage risk. Strategies to reduce hemorrhage events among patients with CKD are warranted.

We integrated the US transplant registry with administrative records from an academic hospital consortium (97 centers, 2008-2012) to identify predonation comorbidity and perioperative complications captured in diagnostic, procedure, and registry sources. Correlates (adjusted odds ratio, aOR) of perioperative complications were examined with multivariate logistic regression. Among 14 964 living kidney donors, 11.6% were African American. Nephrectomies were predominantly laparoscopic (93.8%); 2.4% were robotic and 3.7% were planned open procedures. Overall, 16.8% of donors experienced a perioperative complication, most commonly gastrointestinal (4.4%), bleeding (3.0%), respiratory (2.5%), surgical/anesthesia-related injuries (2.4%), and "other" complications (6.6%). Major Clavien Classification of Surgical Complications grade IV or higher affected 2.5% of donors. After adjustment for demographic, clinical (including comorbidities), procedure, and center factors, African Americans had increased risk of any complication (aOR 1.26, p = 0.001) and of Clavien grade II or higher (aOR 1.39, p = 0.0002), grade III or higher (aOR 1.56, p < 0.0001), and grade IV or higher (aOR 1.56, p = 0.004) events. Other significant correlates of Clavien grade IV or higher events included obesity (aOR 1.55, p = 0.0005), predonation hematologic (aOR 2.78, p = 0.0002) and psychiatric (aOR 1.45, p = 0.04) conditions, and robotic nephrectomy (aOR 2.07, p = 0.002), while annual center volume >50 (aOR 0.55, p < 0.0001) was associated with lower risk. Complications after live donor nephrectomy vary with baseline demographic, clinical, procedure, and center factors, but the most serious complications are infrequent. Future work should examine underlying mechanisms and approaches to minimizing the risk of perioperative complications in all donors.

Evolving literature suggests that the epidemic of prescription opioid use affects the transplant population. We examined a novel database wherein national U.S. transplant registry records were linked to a large pharmaceutical claims warehouse (2007-2015) to characterize prescription opioid use before and after kidney transplant, and associations (adjusted hazard ratio, aHR ) with death and graft loss. Among 75 430 eligible patients, 43.1% filled opioids in the year before transplant. Use was more common among recipients who were women, white, unemployed, publicly insured, and with longer pretransplant dialysis. Of those with the highest level of pretransplant opioid use, 60% continued high-level use posttransplant. Pretransplant opioid use had graded associations with one-year posttransplant outcomes; the highest-level use predicted 46% increased risk of death (aHR 1.46 ) and 28% increased risk of all-cause graft failure (aHR 1.28 ). Effects of high-level opioid use in the first year after transplant were stronger, predicting twice the risk of death (aHR 2.24 ) and 68% higher all-cause graft failure risk (aHR 1.68 ) over the subsequent year; increased risk persisted over five years. While associations may, in part, reflect underlying conditions or behaviors, opioid use history is relevant in assessing and providing care to transplant candidates and recipients.