QUEBEC CITY—Evaluation of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) using validated questionnaires prior to renal transplantation (Tx) may predict which patients will experience significant LUTS after transplantation, researchers reported at the Canadian Society of Transplantation annual meeting.
Marie Dion, BSc, and colleagues at the University of Western Ontario in London, studied 105 renal Tx recipients who filled out the Overactive Bladder Questionnaire at three time points: pre-TX and at six and 12 months post-Tx. Male patients also filled out the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire at the same time points.
Pre-Tx LUTS was present in 15% of participants Moderate to severe LUTS was present in 31% and 23% of subjects at six and 12 months post-Tx, respectively.
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The IPSS questionnaires showed that 40.8% of male patients had moderate to severe benign prostatic hyperplasia symptoms pre-Tx. Evaluation of their post-TX symptoms showed that these patients were 9.4 times as likely as patients with low IPSS scores at 12 months to suffer moderate to severe symptoms.
The investigators concluded that identifying patients at risk for LUTS could allow for screening of inappropriate Tx candidates and medical or surgical treatment of urologic symptoms in the pre-operative or early post-operative period to avoid complications that could compromise renal allografts.
