Bacterial infections as complications in patients within 3 months after simultaneous pancreas‑kidney transplantation

Introduction. Simultaneous pancreas‑kidney transplantation (SPK) is associated with high risk of infectious complications. Objectives. The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of bacterial infections within 3 months after SPK transplantation. Patients and methods. 17 patients with type 1 diabetes at the age of 32–54 years (mean age 42.5 ±7.1) were retrospectively analyzed within 3 months after SPK. Results. No septic complications were observed in 2 patients (12%). In the remaining 15 patients (88%), at least 1 (from 1 to 5, a total of 30) infection episode was observed during follow‑up. The infections were located: only at the surgical site (1 patient – 6.7%), only in the urinary tract (6 patients – 40%), both at the surgical site and in the urinary tract (7 patients – 46.7%), at the surgical site and in blood (1 patient – 6.7%). 2 groups of microbes were predominant, namely enterococci represented by 1 species, E. faecium (13 isolates) and the so‑called intestinal bacilli, Enterobacteriaceae (19 isolates). No methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains were isolated. Candida species fungi were isolated only 3 times. Conclusions. In our study only 2 types of infections were observed (urinary tract and surgical site infections) and each of them comprised nearly half of all the septic episodes recorded. Gram‑negative bacilli were collected more often than Gram‑positive cocci, both from the surgical site and urinary tract infections. All infections ended with full recovery.