Urinary Tract Infections in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is the most common infection in the renal transplant patient, the majority occurring in the first year following transplantation. Renal transplant patients have higher rates of UTI, hospitalizations and death due to Gram-negative septicemia associated with pyelonephritis, compared with patients on the renal transplant waiting list (1,2). Single center studies demonstrate that acute pyelonephritis, especially early posttransplant (3), represents a risk factor to long-term kidney graft function but does not affect graft survival at 5 years (4).