Impact of weight change on kidney transplantation outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Kanbay, M., et al.Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism 2025; 27(3): 1369-1378.
Aims
The aim of this study was to assess how weight gain affected patient and graft outcomes in kidney transplant reipients.
Interventions
PubMed and Scopus were searched for relevant literature. Two reviewers screened studies for eligibity and extracted data. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of the included studies.
Participants
11 studies were included in the review.
Outcomes
The main outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality, graft survival, cardiovascular events and acute rejection.
Follow-up
N/A
CET Conclusions
This systematic review and meta-analysis investigated the impact of significant post-transplant weight gain on outcomes in kidney transplant recipients. The authors identified 11 studies meeting their inclusion criteria, and report that weight gain post-transplant increases graft loss, with no significant impact on patient survival, acute rejection rates or cardiovascular events. In general, the review is well-conducted and reported. Study quality is assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale but not discussed in the manuscript. The results are hampered slightly by studies with heterogeneous follow-up durations and definitions of significant weight change, although heterogeneity in meta-analysis is acceptable for most analyses. Confidence intervals for some analyses are wide, and include clinically meaningful effect sizes, suggesting that more evidence is required to be certain of their findings. Nonetheless, this review does suggest that weight gain has a significant impact on graft survival following renal transplant, and clinicians and patients should strive to minimise these changes in the post-transplant period.
Trial registration
N/A