The impact of gender matching between donor and recipient on the outcome of kidney transplant patients: A retrospective study

The influence of donor and recipient gender on patients postkidney transplant (KT) is still controversial, and literature data do not present unanimous conclusions. We were concerned with the gender impact on the outcome of kidney transplantation at the level of acute rejection (AR), graft function represented by serum creatinine level, delayed graft function (DGF), graft survival, and infection rate. The impact of gender matching between donors and recipients was studied in 299 KT recipients performed in the Transplantation Unit, Middle East Institute of Health, Bsalim, Lebanon, between November 1998 and September 2014. The patients were divided into the following groups: Group I (131 patients, male donor to male recipient), Group II (55 patients, male donor to female recipient), Group III (88 patients, female donor to male recipient), and Group IV (25 patients, female donor to female recipient). AR and DGF were not statistically different among the four groups. Moreover, all groups showed excellent graft survival with no statistical difference. Interestingly, human leukocyte antigen AB-DR matching (P < 0.001) and sensitization were statistically different among the four groups (P = 0.05). The number of patients with infections was statistically significantly lower in Group I (35.4%) and Group III (37.5%) (P = 0.35). Most importantly, graft function, represented by serum creatinine, showed a statistically significant difference among the four groups (P <0.004), with Group II (male to female) and Group IV (female to female) showing the best improvement in five-year survival. However, Group III (female to male) had the worst posttransplant graft function. These results revealed that gender impacts graft function, and Group II, male donor to female recipient, had the best 5-year graft function. This emphasizes that gender should be regarded as a determinant for the success of kidney transplantation.