Long-term impact of pregnancy on mortality and graft outcomes in kidney transplant recipients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Kanbay, M., et al.International Urology & Nephrology 2025 [record in progress].
Aims
The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term graft and mortality outcomes of pregnancy in renal transplant patients.
Interventions
Five databases were searched for relevant literature: PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library. Three reviewers performed the screening of titles and abstracts. The study quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale (NOS).
Participants
19 studies were included in the review.
Outcomes
The main outcomes of interest were mortality, graft loss/failure, serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and proteinuria.
Follow-up
N/A
CET Conclusions
This systematic review aimed to examine how pregnancy affected long-term posttransplant outcomes in kidney transplant patients. The initial screening of titles and abstracts, and assessment of study quality were performed by three independent reviewers. Nineteeen observational studies (case-control and retrospective cohort studies) were included in the review. The findings revealed that pregnancy did not have an impact on long-term mortality and graft survival. Although pregnant kidney transplant recipients showed significantly lower creatinine levels before pregnancy in comparison to post-delivery, the paper does not show how this compares to the non-pregnant controls. The analyses does not adjust for confounders. For instance, it appears that the non-pregnant control group consists of both males and females which is likely to have introduced bias in the results of the analysis.
Trial registration
PROSPERO - CRD42024569702