Hyperimmunoglobulin prophylaxis, monitoring and preemptive ganciclovir treatment eliminate the risk of CMV infection to improve patient and renal allograft survival
This study was designed to investigate whether the introduction of ganciclovir to clinical use for anti‐CMV treatment changes the risk of CMV infection in renal transplant patients. A total of 1545 cases who had received cadaveric renal transplants were divided into two groups: group 1 (n = 721) was made up of patients who received their transplants within 6 years before the introduction (1991) of ganciclovir and group 2 (n = 824), of individuals transplanted thereafter. Patient and graft survival of CMV D+/R‐ patients was uni‐ and multivariately compared with non‐CMV D+/R‐ patients. In CMV D+/R‐ patients in group 1, survival was significantly lower, and their relative risk for graft loss was 1.32‐fold (P = 0.0483) that of non‐CMV D+/R‐ patients. In group 2 patient and graft survival was identical regardless of whether the patients were at risk for CMV infection or not. The risk of CMV infection can be eliminated by hyperimmunoglobulin prophylaxis, CMV monitoring and preemptive ganciclovir treatment in renal transplant patients.