Analgesic nephropathy was the most frequent diagnosis in 324 haemodialysis patients (30%) and the second most frequent diagnosis in 900 transplant patients (17%) at the Klinikum Steglitz, Berlin. Analgesic patients were the oldest group among haemodialysis and transplanted patients; the analgesic patients on haemodialysis were significantly older than the transplanted analgesic patients (55.9 +/- 11.2 versus 50.5 +/- 7.5 years, P = 10(-6)). Patient and graft survival under cyclosporin treatment are not statistically different in 125 transplantations of 109 patients with analgesic nephropathy compared to 508 transplantations of 423 patients with other renal diseases (5-year patient survival, 83.3 +/- 5.1% versus 88.4 +/- 2.4%; 5-year graft survival, 53.5 +/- 7.4% versus 56.8 +/- 3.8 %; NS). Acetaminophen in urine was found in two of 30 analgesic and in one of 54 other patients with a functioning transplant (6.7% versus 1.9%; NS). As a sign of compliance, the mean cyclosporin trough level of 17 patients with analgesic nephropathy did not differ significantly from that of 14 patients with polycystic kidney disease (136.4 +/- 16.4 versus 139.4 +/- 17.3 ng/ml; NS), nor did the mean standard deviation of the individual measurements (36.7 +/- 36.8 versus 27.5 +/- 20.7 ng/ml; NS). Urothelial carcinoma was significantly more frequent in patients with analgesic nephropathy than in those with other renal diseases despite cystoscopy and retrograde pyelography before transplantation (3.7% versus 0.32%; P = 0.001). Vascular disease was the cause of death in 19 of 44 analgesic transplant patients who died (43.2%). Despite the high age and well-known arteriosclerosis in patients with analgesic nephropathy, patient and graft survival are comparable to that of other patients after renal transplantation. Urothelial carcinoma should be routinely excluded before transplantation.
