Introduction: Achievements in short-term graft survival since the introduction of cyclosporine has not been matched by improvement in long-term graft function, and chronic allograft nephropathy remains the second commonest cause of graft attrition over time. We aimed to evaluate the long-term results of conventional immunosuppression by steroid and azathioprine in comparison with cyclosporine-based triple therapy in living donor kidney transplants.
Materials and Methods: We evaluated the long-term follow-up data of 369 living related kidney transplant recipients that were on prednisolone-azathioprine immunosuppressive therapy (group 1) or triple therapy by prednisolone, cyclosporine, and azathioprine (group 2). All recipients were followed-up for more than 10 years (mean, 240±12 months). Comparative analyses included patient and graft survival rates, condition at last follow-up, graft rejection, and graft function.
Results: There were 130 patients in group 1 and 239 in group 2. The overall frequency of acute rejection episodes was not significantly different between the two groups. However, the proportion of patients with chronic allograft nephropathy was significantly higher in group 2 (21% versus 35%, P=.001). Graft survival rates were 85.3% versus 92.4% at 1 year, 69.9% versus 71.9% at 5 years, and 52.5% versus 50.8% at 10 years in groups 1 and 2, respectively (P=.03). The two groups were comparable regarding posttransplant malignancies, diabetes mellitus, serious bacterial infections, and hepatic diseases. However, hypertensive patients were significantly more frequent in group 2.
Conclusions: Chronic allograft nephropathy was significantly higher in patients receiving cyclosporine, possibly due to the risk of drug-induced nephrotoxicity, glomerular disease recurrence, and hypertension. Nowadays, it is possible to achieve excellent calcineurin inhibitors-free regimen using newer maintenance immunosuppressive agents.