University of Plymouth (Sponsor) Collaboration with University Hospitals Southampton & LSHTM

ILD151

Ischaemia Reperfusion injury can occur to the kidneys due to interrupted blood supply. Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) is a safe and cheap intervention that involves inflating and deflating a blood pressure cuff on the upper arm for 5 minutes each and repeating this 4 times. This sends a signal to protect against later injury from interrupted blood supply during kidney transplantation surgery. A study has shown RIPC to improve kidney function by 12% at 5 years following living-donor kidney transplantation. Ischaemia Reperfusion injury is more likely to occur in transplants from deceased donors. This study will determine whether RIPC will improve kidney transplant function in deceased-donor recipients. An improvement in kidney function could translate into increased graft lifespan and allow patients to live free from dialysis for longer. Families of adults expected to undergo organ donation will be approached to seek consent for RIPC to be carried out prior to surgery. People on the transplant waiting list will also be approached to seek pre-consent to undergo RIPC prior to any future transplant surgery. 925 adult deceased-donor kidney transplant recipients will be included in the study. Their eGFR (level of kidney function) at 1 year post transplant will be recorded, and they will also be followed for up to 10 years. We will obtain the eGFR and 10-year follow up data from the UK Renal Registry. This will therefore determine whether RIPC intervention improves kidney transplant function in deceased-donor recipients.