Infectious disease in kidney transplantation
Infection is a common and significant source of morbidity and mortality in the kidney transplant population. In a detailed review of Medicare claims data for 64,751 patients receiving kidney transplant between 1991 and 1998, 51 % suffered some type of infection within their first year of transplant, 31 % with bacterial and 23 % with viral infections [1]. The United States Renal Data System (USRDS) reports that infection was the second most common cause of death with a functioning graft among kidney transplant recipients between 2004 and 2008, exceeded only by cardiovascular disease (21 % vs. 30 %), but that infection surpassed cardiac disease as a cause of hospitalization following transplant during this time, at approximately 33 admissions per 100 patient years in the first year, compared to approximately 15 per 100 patient years [2].