Urinary tract infections beyond the early post-transplant period in pediatric renal graft recipients

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infection is a frequent bacterial complication after renal transplantation in adults and children, however there are only very limited data on children beyond the early post-transplant period. In this study we investigated urinary tract infections in pediatric outpatients who had received transplants more than six months previously. Incidence, risk factors and impact on short-term graft function were analyzed. METHODS: 47 children who had received a total of 58 allografts were analyzed between 1997 and 2000. At the time of analysis they had had their transplants for an average of 3.5 years (range 0.5-9.4). Urinary tract infection was defined as the presence of both significant bacteriuria (> 10(5) CFU/ml) and symptoms. RESULTS: Of the 47 patients, 15 (32%) had from 1 to 7 urinary tract infections each. In total 35 infections were recorded. Median age at urinary tract infection was 5.5 years (range 1.8-24.2). Gender, donor source, immunosuppression and underlying disease (urologic vs non-urologic) did not influence the incidence of urinary tract infection. Creatinine but not C-reactive protein rose significantly during the infection. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that urinary tract infection remains a frequent but mostly benign complication in the pediatric transplant population, even beyond the early post-transplant period. More extended studies are needed to assess the long-term effects on graft function.