Wash U study show kidneys from COVID-19 patients are safe to transplant

Kidneys donated from deceased patients who tested positive for COVID-19 are safe to transplant and don’t pass the infection on to recipients, according to a study from researchers at Washington University.

The findings could encourage more confidence among transplant providers and patients, said Dr. Tarek Alhamad, a transplant nephrologist at Wash U and one of the study’s authors. During the coronavirus pandemic, kidney donations decreased as doctors worried that the organs would put recipients’ health at risk, he said.

“These outcomes are excellent,” Alhamad said. “There was no case of COVID-19 transmission from kidney transplantations, so hopefully more providers and more patients accept these organs.”

For the study published in JAMA Network Open late last month, doctors studied three years of transplant data from more than 45,000 recipients starting in March 2020. They found no higher risk of failure, organ rejection or death in patients receiving kidneys from donors who had COVID-19 than in patients who received kidneys from those who tested negative for the virus.

Kidney recipients whose donor had tested positive for the virus also did not have longer hospital stays or acute kidney injuries, the study found.