Frailty status improvement after kidney transplantation

Introduction: Frailty is a clinical syndrome characterized by a decrease in strength, resistance and body physiological condition, making the individual more vulnerable, and increasing his/her risk of dependence and death. Kidney transplant (KT) is currently the best end-stage renal disease therapeutic alternative for certain individuals. Frailty status occurs in approximately 20% of KT patients. Thus, it was evaluated if there would be any change in frailty status level in a population of adult patients on chronic HD after receiving KT.

Material and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a population of adult hemodialysis patients (n: 57), with the objective of evaluating if there was a significant change in their clinical frailty score (CFS) after 6 months of KT. For the statistical analysis, the Student's t-test, and the test of statistical significance between two proportions were applied.

Results: Mean CFS before KT was 4 (vulnerable), and after KT was 3 (robust). CFS value was significantly lower after KT (p value < 0.01).

Conclusion: A significant improvement was found between pre- and post-transplant clinical frailty scores in hemodialysis adult patients.