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. 2020 Dec 14;12(12):e12075.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.12075.

Trends in US Kidney Transplantation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Stephen J Bordes  1 , Lisandro Montorfano  2 , Wesley West-Ortiz  3 , Roberto Valera  2 , Alejandro Cracco  2 , Mileydis Alonso  2 , Antonio D Pinna  2 , Samer Ebaid  2
Affiliations

Trends in US Kidney Transplantation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Stephen J Bordes et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Solid organ transplants have been impacted significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Limited data exist regarding changes in living donor kidney transplants. The aim of this study was to describe national trends in kidney transplantation during COVID-19. This descriptive cross-sectional study used publicly available data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the National Kidney Registry (NKR). Plots of national waitlist inactivations, waitlist additions, deceased donor transplants and living donor transplants were created. An Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model with interrupted time series analysis adjusting for first-order autocorrelation was used to evaluate for significant changes in outcome trends every four-week period during the COVID-19 era between March 15 and August 1, 2020. A statistical significance of 0.05 (𝛼) was established for analysis. Changes in kidney transplant volumes during the COVID-19 outbreak were registered. Density mapping and linear regression with interrupted time series analysis were used to characterize changes over time nationwide. Kidney transplants were affected significantly in recent months due to COVID-19. Deceased donor and living donor kidney transplant trends are described in this paper in addition to operative recommendations.

Keywords: covid-19; deceased donor kidney transplant; kidney transplant; kidney transplantation; living donor kidney transplant; living donor program; pandemic; sars-cov-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Total 2020 living donor kidney transplants in the United States by week.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Total year-to-date living donor kidney transplants in the United States.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Total year-to-date deceased donor kidney transplants in the United States.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Year-to-date deceased donor kidney transplants in the United States by week.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Year-to-date kidney transplant inactivations due to COVID-19 in the United States by week.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Total year-to-date kidney transplants in the United States.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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