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Kidney retransplantation for BK virus nephropathy with active viremia without allograft nephrectomy

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Abstract

BK virus nephropathy is an important cause of kidney allograft failure. Retransplantation has been successfully performed for patients with previous allograft loss due to BK virus nephropathy; however, whether allograft nephrectomy and viral clearance are required prior to retransplantation is controversial. Some recent studies have suggested that retransplantion can be successfully achieved without allograft nephrectomy if viremia is cleared prior to retransplant. The only published experience of successful retransplantation in the presence of active viremia occurred in the presence of concomitant allograft nephrectomy of the failing kidney. In this report, we describe a case of successful repeat kidney transplant in a patient with high-grade BK viremia and fulminant hepatic failure without concomitant allograft nephrectomy performed under the setting of a simultaneous liver-kidney transplant.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support from the patient who consented for publication for this case report as well as Erik Lum, MD and Uttam Reddy, MD for their contribution to the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent for publication was obtained from the patient in this study.

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Correspondence to Edmund Huang.

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Huang, J., Danovitch, G., Pham, PT. et al. Kidney retransplantation for BK virus nephropathy with active viremia without allograft nephrectomy. J Nephrol 28, 773–777 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-015-0200-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40620-015-0200-6

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