Lethal complications of bilateral nephrectomy and splenectomy in hemodialyzed patients

Routine bilateral nephrectomy and splenectomy (BNS) in uremic patients before transplantation are relatively safe procedures except when there is pre-existing sepsis, diabetes, or severe hypertension. A review of 421 patients undergoing routine pretransplantation BNS reveals that death before transplantation occurs in two definable groups of patients. In our series, the first group, those with juvenile onset diabetes, have a 15.4 per cent pretransplantation mortality (9.6 per cent operative and 5.8 per cent nonoperative) while being maintained on hemodialysis and awaiting transplantation. The second group, nondiabetic patients with other preoperatively definable risk factors such as severe hypertension and infected kidneys, had a 3.25 per cent pretransplantation mortality (1.9 per cent operative and 1.25 per cent nonoperative) while on hemodialysis. Paradoxically, these same factors are used as absolute criteria for pretransplantation nephrectomy at institutions where this operation is not a routine part of the pretransplantation regimen.