| Abstract: | Abstract To analyse the contribution of cytomegalovirus (CMV) serology to long‐term graft survival in cadaveric kidney transplantation, 404 transplants from a single centre were divided into four subgroups with respect to the combination of donor and recipient CMV antibody status. Graft survival was estimated according to Kaplan‐Meier for 1, 3, 5 and 7 years post‐transplantation. The single‐centre results confirm a negative impact of CMV‐positive donor organs for initial graft survival in CMV‐negative recipients within the first 3 years after transplantation. However, when 5‐ and 7‐year long‐term graft survival was studied, Donor +/Recipient ‐ pairs showed a favourable long‐term result, whilst D +/R ‐ pairs had surprisingly a poorer outcome. Therefore, the concept of avoiding transplantation in the D +/R + CMV serology group should be ignored whereas attempts could be made to improve the poor long‐term outcome of D +/R + pairs or to reduce its size by organ allocation. |
