Abstract

GARCIA VIANA, Mª Concepción et al. Recipients of kidney transplants from donors in asystole and brain death: differences in nursing care. Enferm Nefrol [online]. 2012, vol.15, n.1, pp.40-45. ISSN 2255-3517.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S2254-28842012000100006.

Nowadays it is indisputable that kidney transplant is the preferred replacement therapy for patients with chronic kidney disease. In our hospital we carry out basically two types of kidney transplants, the classic brain dead donor and the asystolic donor. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether there were differences in the workload of nursing staff depending on the type of transplant. This is a transversal study of 73 patients who received a kidney transplant in 2010, 18 of which were from a brain dead donor and 55 from an asystolic donor. The kidney transplants from asystolic donors showed a higher incident of primary graft failure (15% v. 1.4%) and a greater delay in kidney function (18 days v. 0 days). Because of this, our care task was increased in this type of transplant as a greater number of kidney biopsies were required which involve care in preparation and supervision of complications, the need for more haemodialysis session and the administration of a more doses of thymoglobulin. No significant differences were identified in the incidence of infections between the two types of transplant, or in the average hospital stay although the latter could be influenced by the size of the sample. Despite the complications mentioned above, kidney function in the medium term in both types of transplant was similar, which encourages the use of asystolic donors.

Keywords : Kidney transplant; Asystolic donor; Brain dead donor; Nursing care; Primary graft failure; Delay in kidney function.

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