Introduction: ABO incompatibility was a major barrier in kidney transplantation. Advances in immunosuppressive therapy and desensitization protocol have made ABO incompatible transplants safe and effective. The present study is a retrospective comparison of ABO incompatible with ABO compatible and Cadaveric renal transplant in single centre.

Method: The study includes 7 ABO incompatible, 14 similar age and HLA matched ABO compatible and 7 cadaveric kidney transplant recipients. All ABO incompatible recipients underwent desensitization with Rituximab and plasmapheresis with IVIg. Their outcomes at 6 months in terms of eGFR calculated by MDRD formula, incidence of rejection and infection as well as graft survival and patient survival were compared.

Result: The outcome in terms of eGFR at 6 months was equivalent in ABO compatible (66.90ml/min/1.73m2) and ABO incompatible (60.42ml/min/m2) group and was significantly lower in the cadaveric group (45.32ml/min/m2). The incidence of infection at 6 months was equal in ABO incompatible (28.5%) and ABO compatible group (28.5%) and it was significantly higher in cadaveric transplant groups (42.85%). There was one incidence of acute rejection and one graft loss in cadaveric transplant group whereas no rejection and graft loss in ABO compatible and ABO incompatible transplant group. All three groups had 100% patient survival.

Conclusion: The graft function, risk of infection and graft survival at 6 months in ABO incompatible transplant is non inferior to ABO compatible transplant and is superior to Cadaver transplant. ABO incompatible transplant also circumvents the waiting period on dialysis and mortality and morbidity associated with it.