Increased rejection rates in kidney transplantations during the COVID-19 pandemic

Schmidt-Lauber, Christian; Spoden, Melissa; Huber, Tobias B; Günster, Christian; Grahammer, Florian

The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic constitutes a major challenge for transplantation medicine. Given the potential risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and adverse disease courses for recently transplanted recipients, many transplant centers have adapted kidney transplantation programs during the pandemic [1-3]. However, the severity of adaptions considerably differed between countries. Whereas numbers of kidney transplant procedures decreased substantially in the United States, Italy or France [1-3], partially accompanied by changes in early immunosuppressive regimens, countries of the Eurotransplant network virtually maintained transplant activity [4].