Heart-kidney listing is better than isolated heart listing for pediatric heart transplant candidates with significant renal insufficiency.

OBJECTIVES

Significant renal insufficiency is identified as a risk factor for post-transplantation mortality in pediatric heart transplant recipients. This study evaluates simultaneous heart-kidney transplantation listing outcomes compared with heart transplant for pediatric candidates with significant renal insufficiency.

METHODS

The United Network for Organ Sharing registry was searched for patients (January 1987 to March 2020) who were simultaneously listed for a heart-kidney transplantation or for heart transplant with significant renal insufficiency at the time of listing. Significant renal insufficiency was defined as needing dialysis or having a low estimated glomerular filtration rate (<40 mL/min). Survival was calculated using Kaplan-Meier analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 427 cases were identified; 109 were listed for heart-kidney transplantation, and 318 were listed for heart transplant alone. Median time on the waitlist was 101 days (interquartile range, 28-238) for heart-kidney transplantation listings compared with 39 days (14-86) and 23.5 days (6-51) for heart transplant recipients with a low estimated glomerular filtration rate (P = .002) or on dialysis (P < .001), respectively. Of all heart-kidney transplantation listings, 66% (n = 71) received a transplant compared with 54% (n = 173) of heart transplantation with significant renal insufficiency (P = .005) with a mean survival of 14.6 years (12.7-16.4 years) for heart transplant without significant renal insufficiency at transplantation and 7.6 years (5.4-9.9 years) for heart transplant with significant renal insufficiency at transplantation. At 1 year after listing, 69% of heart-kidney transplantation listed recipients were alive, compared with 51% of heart transplant listed recipients (P = .029). Heart-kidney transplantation recipients had better 1-year post-transplantation survival (86%) than heart transplantation with significant renal insufficiency at transplant (66%) (P = .001). There was no significant difference in the 1- and 5-year survivals of those undergoing heart transplantation listed with significant renal insufficiency but no significant renal insufficiency at the time of transplant (89% and 78%) and heart-kidney transplantation recipients (86% and 81%; P = .436).

CONCLUSIONS

Pediatric candidates with significant renal insufficiency listed for heart-kidney transplantation have superior waitlist and post-transplantation outcomes compared with those listed for heart transplant alone. Patients with significant renal insufficiency should be listed for heart-kidney transplantation, however; if their renal function improves significantly, heart transplant alone appears judicious.