• S Candan, A Pirat, G Varol, A Torgay, P Zeyneloglu, and G Arslan.
• Baskent University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Ankara, Turkey. selimcandantr@yahoo.co.uk
• Transplant. Proc. 2006 Jun 1; 38 (5): 1354-6.

AbstractCardiovascular disease, malignancies, and infectious complications are major causes of morbidity and mortality of renal transplant recipients. Mortality rates vary between 16% and 40% in an intensive care unit (ICU). The aims of this study were to identify the types incidences of respiratory problems that affected renal transplant recipients admitted to the ICU during long-term follow-up thereby determining the impact of respiratory problems on mortality. We reviewed the data for 34 recipients who had 39 ICU admissions from January 2000 through December 2003. Twenty-four admissions (61.5%) had at least one respiratory problem at admission or developed at least one during the ICU stay. The most frequent problem was pneumonia (n=18, 46.2% of the 39 readmissions), followed by acute respiratory failure (n=10, 25.6%), atelectasis (n=9, 23.1%), pleural effusion (n=8, 20.5%), and pulmonary edema (n=2, 5.1%). The patients who had respiratory problems showed a significantly higher mortality rate than those who did not have respiratory problems (66.6% versus 26.6%, respectively; P<.05). The overall mortality rate was 58.8% (20 patients). Thus, infectious and respiratory problems are the most frequent indications for admission and the most common problems during an ICU stay. The prognosis for patients who either have a respiratory problem upon admission to the ICU or develop one during the ICU stay is poor.

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