[Epidemiological description of patients with neurological conditions in kidney transplant recipients]

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of neuropathic bladder in kidney transplant patients.

Patients and methods: Patients with terminal chronic kidney disease related to neurogenic bladder were sorted out from a population of 1286 kidney transplant recipients operated between 1993 and 2008.

Results: Thirty-three patients, 26 men and seven women, mean age 46.9+/-12.4 years old at the transplantation time were found out. Neurological conditions were spinal dysraphism in 39.4% of the cases, brain injury in 18.2%, cerebrovascular accident in 15.2%, spinal cord injury in 12.2%, myelitis in 6%, congenital encephalopathy in 6% and Hinmann's syndrome in 3%. Mean time between the onset of the neurological disease and the beginning of the dialysis was 21.7+/-11.9 years.

Conclusion: Prevalence of patients with neuropathic bladder in kidney transplant patients is 2.6%. Most frequent neurological conditions involved are spinal dysraphism and brain injury. The onset of the dialysis occurs 21 years on average after the diagnosis of the neurological disease in patients with mean age of 37.8 years.