Outcome after renal transplantation in children from native and immigrant families in Austria

Renal transplantation is the therapy of choice for children with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Ethnicity affects the transplant survival rates substantially, but there has been no European academic evaluation of the effects of immigration on the pediatric renal transplantation outcome. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of renal transplantation between the children of immigrant families and the children of native families at the pediatric nephrology unit of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. We conducted a retrospective study on all children who underwent renal transplantation at our center between January 1997 and June 2005. The patients were separated into two groups according to their immigration backgrounds. During the time frame of our study, 59 children underwent a total of 63 transplantations. Of these children, 42 were from native Austrian and 17 were from first-generation immigrant families. We analyzed the demographic data and outcome parameters for each of the 59 patients. We found no difference in patient and graft survival rates or long-term function between native and immigrant children. The two groups were also comparable in the rates of acute rejection episodes, 24-h blood pressure, and growth velocity. Living donor source had a positive influence on graft function (p=0.06), 24-h blood pressure (p=0.05), and growth velocity (p=0.02) only in the immigrant group. Our retrospective analysis shows no influence of the migration status on the patient or graft outcome, but we did find that immigrant children benefitted more than native children from living donation as opposed to deceased donation. To explain this fact, biological, heath-economical, psychosocial, and cultural background aspects must be investigated.