Hippokratia 2004, 8(3):133-142
G. Vergoulas
Organ Transplant Unit, Hippokratio General Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece
Abstract
Infectious complications are still one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality after kidney transplantation. In spite the fact that pneumonia in kidney transplants presents the lowest frequency among the solid organ transplants (8% – 16%), it is a threatening infection that frequently nessecitates admittion to the Intensive Care Unit and leads to death in 50% of cases. The diagnosis is frequently difficult because of the large number of pathogens that can cause it, the non-specific nature of clinical and laboratory findings and the failure of sputum and blood specimen cultures to isolate the pathogenic microorganism. Infections due to legionella, nocardia, pneumonocystis carinii, mycobacterum tuberculosis, CMV, aspergillus and candida can cause heavy pneumonia and death in patients with kidney transplantation.