Post-transplant patients do not incur worse DFU outcomes, new study says

Research into the outcomes of people with diabetic foot ulcer following kidney transplantation has found their outcomes are no worse than those who have not undergone a transplant, despite immunosuppressive therapy.

With little data available on DFU in people who have undergone an organ transplant, researchers from Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel and the Department of Military Medicine and “Tzameret”- Israel Defense forces, set out to review the outcomes.

Chronic immunosuppression may be linked with impaired wound healing and a higher risk of amputations.

To test this, the team examined data from people admitted to a diabetic foot unit between 2014 and 2019, comparing transplant patients’ outcomes – major amputations and mortality rates – with non-transplant patients.

During the study period, out of the 537 people who were hospitalised, 18 of them received immunosuppressive therapy due to kidney transplantation.

They found that post-transplant patients tended to be younger, were more likely to have type-1 diabetes and had lower glucose levels upon admission.

The team reported: “Overall, 30% of the patients underwent major amputation, in-patient mortality rate was 9.3%, and 1-year mortality rate was 27.2%. Rates were similar in the post-transplant vs. the non-post-transplant patients (p=0.83, 1.00, 0.59 respectively).”

They concluded: “Post-transplant patients did not incur worse outcomes in spite of immunosuppressive therapy. Limb salvage efforts should be pursued in these patients similar to the overall population.”

Read more here.

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