Oral health status is associated with the incidence of infection after kidney transplantation

Abstract

Background: Periodontitis is known as a risk for many systemic diseases. We investigated the association between oral health status and outcomes after living donor kidney transplantation. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 57 patients who had undergone living donor kidney transplantation and preoperative oral care at our institution. We divided patients into two groups by preoperative percentage of tooth sites with bleeding on probing (BOP), followed by comparing the cumulative incidence of infection (cytomegalovirus infection, biopsy-proven BK nephropathy, urinary tract infection, and any other infection requiring hospitalization) and biopsy-proven rejection including borderline changes after transplantation between the two groups. Results: The cumulative incidence of patients with BOP of 2% or more was significantly higher (180 days and 1 year; 49.2% and 55.5%, respectively) than patients with BOP<2% (180 days and 1 year; 22.8% and 29.8%, respectively; P=0.018). Cox hazard regression analysis showed that preoperative BOP was a statistically significant risk factor for the incidence of infection after transplantation in univariate (hazard ratio [HR], 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-1.06; P=0.019) and multivariate analysis (HR, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.00-1.06; P=0.013). Rejection-free survival of patients with BOP of 2% or more was higher than patients with BOP<2%, although it was not statistically significant (P=0.286). Conclusions: Our data suggest that preoperative BOP is a risk factor for infection after transplantation, especially within 180 days.