The incidence and costs of sepsis and pneumonia before and after renal transplantation in the United States

We compared the graft survival and accumulative costs associated with sepsis and pneumonia pre- and post-transplantation. We analyzed 44 916 first kidney transplants from 1995 to 2001 USRDS where Medicare was the primary payer. We drew five cohorts for each disease from the baseline population: patients who had a disease onset in the first or second years pre-transplantation (cohorts 1 and 2) or post-transplantation (cohorts 3 and 4) and patients who were disease-free (cohort 5). For each cohort, we calculated graft survival and average accumulated Medicare payments (AAMPs) for the two pre- and post-transplantation years. Graft survival: new-onset sepsis and pneumonia both significantly (p <0.01) lowered graft survival during the year of onset. AAMPs: the AAMPs incurred by sepsis- (pneumonia-) free patients during the first and second years post-transplantation were $50 000 and 13 000 ($51 100 and 13 500), respectively. Patients with a sepsis (pneumonia) onset post-transplantation cost on average $48 400 ($38 400) extra (p<0.01). Episodes of sepsis and pneumonia have a strong and independent impact on graft survival and costs.