Background
Pregnancy can be associated with adverse outcome in women with chronic kidney diseases. As around 5-10% of kidney transplantations are performed in women of childbearing age (1,2), we must be able to advise and to support the patients who want to get pregnant. This study aims to describe mother, child, and allograft outcomes after pregnancy in our retrospective cohort of kidney transplant recipients, and to compare these data with other transplant cohorts as well as with the general population as descried in the literature.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the files of the cohort of kidney transplant recipients, regularly followed between 1990 and 2017 in Lausanne University hospital, a tertiary referral hospital. The studied outcomes were maternal, transplant, or newborn complications during and over a period of 2 years after pregnancy.
Results
There have been 16 pregnancies for 11 women, with 16 live births (100%). There was no graft loss during the pregnancy, but 2 patients (12.5%) lost their graft within 2 years after successful delivery. Twelve babies (75%) were born without complication or malformation. Four babies (25%) were born with respiratory, cardiac or chromosomic complications or malformations. Regarding the mothers, 10 pregnancies resulted into moderate or more severe complications, including 2 preeclampsia and 2 episodes of acute renal failure.
Conclusions
In conclusion, providing good kidney function before the conception, careful and regular specialized follow-up, pregnancy can be considered to be relatively safe for the transplanted mother and her child.