Population
Kidney transplant recipients (11 studies, n= 19,543).
Intervention
Kidney transplantation with blood transfusion (n= 6,191).
Comparison
Kidney transplantation without blood transfusion (n= 13,352).
Outcome
The authors assessed the pooled associations between blood transfusion and occurrence of de novo donor-specific antibodies (dnDSA) and clinical outcomes. Blood transfusion was strongly correlated with the development of dnDSA (relative risk (RR) 1.40; 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.17, 1.67]). Patients with blood transfusion had a higher risk of developing anti-human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I dnDSA than non-transfused patients (RR 1.75; 95% CI [1.14, 2.69]) as well as significantly higher rates of antibody-mediated rejection (RR 1.41; 95% CI [1.21, 2.35]) and graft loss (RR 1.75; 95% CI [1.30, 2.35]). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in the development of anti-HLA antibodies, anti-HLA class II dnDSA, and anti-HLA class I and II dnDSA; delayed graft function; T cell-mediated rejection; acute rejection; borderline rejection; or patient death.