Background: Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality after kidney transplantation. Although statins reduce cardiovascular risk and have renal benefits in the general population, their effects on kidney transplant recipients are not well-established.
Methods: We studied the effects of early statin use (within 1-year posttransplantation) on long-term outcomes in 714 kidney transplant recipients from the Korean Cohort Study for Outcome in Patients with Kidney Transplantation.
Results: Compared with the control group, statin group recipients were significantly older, had a higher body mass index, and had a higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus. During a median follow-up of 85 months, 74 graft losses occurred (54 death-censored graft losses and 20 deaths). Early statin use was independently associated with lower mortality (hazard ratio, 0.280; 95% confidence interval, 0.111–0.703) and lower death-censored graft loss (hazard ratio, 0.350; 95% confidence interval, 0.198–0.616). Statin therapy significantly reduced low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels but did not decrease the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. Biopsy-proven rejection and graft renal function were not significantly different between statin and control groups.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that early statin use is an effective strategy for reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and improving patient and graft survival after kidney transplantation.