Introduction: It is well-known that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on healthcare practices; however, the impact on renal transplant practice is unknown. This study aimed to determine the effect COVID-19 has had on the demographics and comorbidities of renal transplant recipients and its impact on surgical outcomes at a Canadian site.

Methods: Data were collected via retrospective chart review. Renal transplant patients from 2019–2020 were identified using the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton renal transplant database. Pre-COVID-19 transplants occurred between January 1, 2019, and March 12, 2020, and during COVID-19 transplants occurred between March 12, 2020, and August 1, 2020.  The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) is a weighted scoring system of medical conditions that is validated in renal transplants to predict mortality. CCI scores were calculated for each patient.

Results: Data existed for 142 renal transplants pre-COVID-19 and 25 renal transplants during COVID-19. Most transplants done for both groups were from deceased donors (72.5% vs. 80.0%). Recipients of renal transplants pre-COVID-19 were older than those during COVID-19 (55.6 years vs. 47.7 years, p=0.02). There was no significant difference in the body mass index between the patient groups (27.8 pre-COVID-19 vs. 26.1 during COVID-19, p=0.1). CCI scores during COVID-19 were lower than pre-COVID-19, but this was not statistically significant (3.5 vs. 4.2, p=0.1). These scores correspond to a 10-year survival of 67.0% and 47.2%, respectively. As expected, there were no significant differences in perioperative outcomes, including estimated blood loss, warm ischemic time, length of stay, and 30-day readmission rate.

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that patients undergoing renal transplants at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic were younger, but otherwise, differences in demographics and surgical outcomes were minimal.