TOPLINE:

In patients with kidney cancer who underwent partial or radical nephrectomy, a history of cardiac transplant (CT) was not significantly associated with an increased risk for adverse in-hospital outcomes.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a cohort study to examine whether a history of CT was linked to an increased risk for adverse in-hospital outcomes after partial or radical nephrectomy in patients with kidney cancer.
• The study included 39,373 patients who underwent partial nephrectomy and 95,016 who underwent radical nephrectomy; of them, 26 (median age, 66 years; 85% men) and 41 (median age, 65 years; 88% men) had a history of CT, respectively.
• After propensity score matching, analyses compared 26 patients with a history of CT to 260 without it in the partial nephrectomy group and 41 with a history of CT to 410 without it in the radical nephrectomy group.
• The primary endpoints were adverse in-hospital outcomes, including overall and certain specific complications, use of critical care, acute kidney injury, blood transfusion, prolonged hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, and hospital costs.

TAKEAWAY:

• In the partial nephrectomy group, patients with a history of CT had numerically higher rates of overall complications; critical care therapies; acute kidney injury; pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and infectious complications; blood transfusions; and prolonged hospital stay but lower rates of intraoperative, cardiac, and genitourinary complications and in-hospital mortality than those without a history of CT.
• In the radical nephrectomy group, patients with vs without a history of CT had numerically higher rates of acute kidney injury, cardiac complications, and in‑hospital mortality but lower rates of overall complications and several other outcomes.
• Overall, CT status was not independently associated with any adverse in-hospital outcome after either partial or radical nephrectomy (P > .05 for both).

IN PRACTICE:

"These findings have a strong clinical impact suggesting that carefully selected CT recipients could safely undergo PN [partial nephrectomy] and RN [radical nephrectomy] without excess short-term morbidity or mortality," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Federico Polverino, Science of Reproduction and Odontostomatology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. It was published online on December 29, 2025, in World Journal of Urology.

LIMITATIONS:

The rarity of CT cases limited the study's statistical power. The study lacked detailed clinical information, such as tumour stage, surgical complexity, and post-discharge complications. Additionally, the study did not include information on immunosuppressive regimens, rejection episodes, or cardiac allograft function, which may have influenced surgical risk.

DISCLOSURES:

No funding information was provided for this study. The authors declared having no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.