Use of drug-eluting balloon coronary intervention prior to living donor kidney transplantation

BACKGROUND: Kidney transplantation is the gold standard of therapy in patients with terminal renal insufficiency. Living donor transplantation is a well-established option in this field. Enlarging the donor’s pool implicates the acceptance of an increased rate of comorbidities. Among them, coronary artery disease is a growing problem. An increasing number of patients, undergoing living donation, receive antiplatelet therapies due to coronary disease. CASE PRESENTATION: Here we report about the perioperative treatment with a drug-eluting balloon in a patient with major cardiac risk factors who underwent kidney transplantation. CONCLUSION: At the current time no recommendation can be given for the routine use of drug-eluting balloons.