Introduction: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a significant impact on the field of kidney transplantation. Recipient was found to have high mortality associated with COVID-19 infection and also had vaccination-related problems. There was also a change in the habit of infection prevention activities in daily life. Clinicians were also more cautious before when screening donors and recipients, and had a practical and psychological effect on the timing of transplant surgery and the dosage of immunosuppressive agents. We conducted this study to understand whether there is a difference in new transplant outcome before and after COVID-19 pandemic when the treatment protocol and the composition of the transplant team are the same.

Methods: From January 2018 to December 2021, patients who underwent kidney transplantation at Haeundae-paik Hospital were included in the study. We confirmed the living-donor or deceased donor transplantation, the presence or absence of rejection, hospitalization, the presence or absence of BK polyomavirus infection, and creatinine and cystatin C at 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months after transplantation.

Results: A total of 56 patients were included in the study. Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, 28 patients (male 20 and living donor transplants 10) underwent Kidney transplantation, and 28 patients (male 15 and living donor transplant 12) underwent surgery thereafter. The average age for each group was 54 ± 9.56 years and 53 ± 11.40 years. Rejection was 7 T-cell mediated rejection and 3 Antibody-mediated rejection in the group prior to COVID-19 pandemic, and 7 T-cell mediated rejection in the group after COVID-19 pandemic, with no statistically significant difference. There were 2 and 4 BK polyomavirus infections in each group. There were 7 hospitalizations per group within 1 year, and the average length of stay was 19.52 ± 32.68 days and 10.86 ± 89.34 days. Laboratory tests showed no statistically significant difference in creatinine and cystatin C levels at 1 month, 3 months, and 12 months.

Conclusion: There was no difference in the outcome of the kidney transplantation before and after COVID-19 pandemic when the treatment protocol and the transplant team in charge were the same.