Background: Little information is available about the long-term outcome of renal transplantation in adults with Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP).
Methods: We compared the outcomes of 17 patients with HSP who received 19 renal transplants with those of 38 controls matched for time of transplantation, age, gender and source of donor. The mean post-transplant follow-up was 109 +/- 99 months for HSP patients and 110 +/- 78 months for controls.
Results: The actuarial 15-year patient survival was 80% in HSP patients and 82% in controls, and the death-censored graft survival was 64% in HSP patients and in controls. The risks of acute rejection, chronic graft dysfunction, arterial hypertension and infection were not different between the two groups. In eight grafts (42%) recurrence of HSP nephritis was found (0.05/patient/year). In spite of therapy, one patient died and four eventually restarted dialysis respectively 10, 32, 35 and 143 months after renal transplant. Seventy-one percent of grafts transplanted in patients with necrotizing/crescentic glomerulonephritis of the native kidney had HSP recurrence in comparison to 12% of recurrences in patients with mesangial nephritis (P = 0.05)
Conclusions: Long-term patient and allograft survival of HSP patients was good. However, 42% of HSP patients, particularly those with necrotizing/crescentic glomerulonephritis of the native kidneys, developed a recurrence of HSP nephritis that eventually caused the loss of the graft function in half of them.