Review article
The care of kidney transplant recipients during a global pandemic: Challenges and strategies for success

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trre.2020.100567Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Kidney transplant recipients present unique characteristics, including disease vintage, immunosuppression, and a single kidney.

  • The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in immense challenges to the management of patients with a kidney transplant.

  • In the absence of clear guidelines, it is unclear how to provide the best routine care for this particular group of patients.

  • This review article is focused on the challenges faced by kidney transplant recipients and health care providers during the current pandemic.

Abstract

The global pandemic of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the novel beta coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), has become an unprecedented medical, economic, and psychosocial crisis. The pandemic and its management strategies have resulted in immense challenges for health systems, not only in caring for those with COVID-19 but also in the ongoing management of chronic medical conditions. Kidney transplant recipients present a unique challenge given their need for ongoing monitoring and management as well as their higher risk of COVID-19 infection. In the absence of clear guidelines, it is unclear how to best provide routine care to this unique patient population during the pandemic. Rigorous medical and psychosocial patient-centered risk stratification strategies are needed to avoid adverse outcomes in stable solid organ transplant recipients. This review will focus on the challenges faced by kidney transplant recipients and health care providers and provides strategies to address these issues.

Keywords

COVID-19 pandemic
Kidney transplant recipients
Socio-economic effects
Strategies to take care

Abbreviations

CDC
Center for Disease Control
CKD-T
Chronic kidney disease after transplantation
CMS
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
CMV
cytomegalovirus
COVID-19
beta coronavirus 2019
DART
Cell-Free DNA and Active Rejection in Kidney Allograft
DASS-21
depression, anxiety, and stress scale-21
ICU
intensive care unit
KTR
kidney transplant recipients
RRT
renal replacement therapy
SARS-CoV-2
severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2
WHO
World health organization

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