Superior outcomes in HIV-positive kidney transplant patients compared to HCV-infected or HIV/HCV co-infected recipients

The prerequisite for an “undetectable” HIV viral load has restricted access to transplantation for HIV-infected kidney recipients. However, HCV-infected recipients, due the historic limitations of HCV therapy in patients with renal disease, are commonly viremic at transplant and have universal access. In order to compare the effect of HIV, HCV and HIV/HCV co-infection on kidney transplant patient and allograft outcomes, we performed a retrospective study of kidney recipients transplanted from January 1996 through December 2013. In multivariable analysis, patient (hazard ratio 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.66–1.24) and allograft survival (0.60, 40–0.88) in 492 HIV patients did not differ significantly from the 117,791 patient uninfected reference group. This was superior to outcomes in both the 5605 patient HCV group for death (1.44, 1.33–1.56) and graft loss (1.43, 1.31–1.56) as well as the 147 patient HIV/HCV co-infected group for death (2.26, 1.45–3.52) and graft loss (2.59, 1.60–4.19). HIV infection did not adversely affect recipient or allograft survival and was associated with superior outcomes compared to both HCV infection and HIV/HCV co-infection in this population. Thus, pre-transplant viral eradication and/ or immediate post-transplant eradication should be studied as potential strategies to improve post-transplant outcomes in HCV-infected kidney recipients.