ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A new study released Wednesday indicates transplant recipients of new hearts, lungs, livers or intestines, are likely to suffer kidney failure.
The University of Michigan Health System study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows 16.5 percent of all non-kidney transplant recipients develop chronic kidney failure, and nearly a third of those patients develop full-blown, end-stage renal disease.
Patients whose kidneys begin to fail after their transplant face a much larger risk of dying than those whose kidneys remain healthy. Only a second transplant -- to put in a new kidney -- mitigates the fatal consequences of end stage renal disease.
The researchers said they were not able to identify the causes of the kidney failure seen in the study of 69,321 people who received transplants of any solid organ except kidney or pancreas between 1990 and 2000. The study was the largest ever conducted of its kind.
