Postoperative Complications in Kidney Transplant Patients at a Transplant Center in the South of Minas Gerais

Introduction: Vascular, urological and clinical complications can occur in patients undergoing kidney transplantation. Several factors can influence the occurrence of these events and often require hospital readmissions. Transplant services are generally located in large urban centers. In the south of the state of Minas Gerais (MG), there is a city with a population of less than hundred thousand inhabitants that offers a transplant service. The prevalence of postoperative complications in patients operated on in a small population center is not available in the literature. Objectives: The objective of the study was to describe the postoperative complications of patients who underwent kidney transplantation in a service in a small city in the south of MG. Methods: Retrospective and descriptive study. We used the digitalized medical records of patients who underwent kidney transplantation (n = 55) between 2015 and 2020. Results: Of the 55 patients analyzed, 28 (50.9%) were between 40-59 years old. The majority were white individuals (41 [74.5%]). The main etiology of chronic kidney disease was undetermined (40%). Complications occurred in 61.8% of patients, the majority of which were due to surgery (52.9%), especially of vascular origin. There was no significant difference in the rate of complications in relation to sociodemographic and clinical variables (p > 0.05), except for the hemodialysis variable (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Vascular surgical complications were more prevalent in the postoperative period of patients undergoing kidney transplantation in a service located in a small city in the south of MG.