Human immunodeficiency virus infection and kidney transplantation in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy and modern immunosuppression

Before the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy, kidney transplant recipients infected with HIV had increased risk of death compared with HIV-uninfected recipients. More recent single-center reports have indicated improved results, but this has not been assessed in a national population. Therefore, a retrospective cohort study of US adult deceased donor kidney transplant recipients from January 1, 1996, to May 31, 2001 was conducted; patients were followed until October 3 1, 2001. A total of 27,851 patients had valid recipient HIV serology. Cox regression analysis was used to model adjusted hazard ratios for mortality and graft loss, respectively, adjusted for other factors, including comorbid conditions from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies Form 2728. Factors independently associated with HIV infection were also assessed by logistic regression analysis. Only 12.8% of HIV-infected recipients were black, compared with 27.6% in the entire study cohort. HIV-infected kidney transplant recipients were significantly less likely to be black in logistic regression analysis (adjusted OR, 0.29; 95% CI, 0.08 to 0.99; P = 0.049), which was the only factor independently associated with HIV infection. It was found that HIV-infected recipients had improved survival compared with HIV-uninfected recipients, although this was not statistically significant in adjusted analysis (adjusted HR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.05 to 2.53; P = 0.31). Kidney transplantation in HIV-infected patients is plausible and ongoing, but HIV-infected candidates who underwent kidney transplantation in the United States during the course of the study were demographically unrepresentative of HIV-infected candidates generally.