Govindarajan KK. Obesity and pediatric renal transplant: An unholy alliance. World J Nephrol 2025; 14(4): 106428 [DOI: 10.5527/wjn.v14.i4.106428]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Krishna Kumar Govindarajan, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, JIPMER Campus Road, Dhanvantari Nagar, Puducherry 605006, India. kkpeds@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Urology & Nephrology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Nephrol. Dec 25, 2025; 14(4): 106428 Published online Dec 25, 2025. doi: 10.5527/wjn.v14.i4.106428
Obesity and pediatric renal transplant: An unholy alliance
Krishna Kumar Govindarajan
Krishna Kumar Govindarajan, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry 605006, India
Author contributions: Govindarajan KK was responsible for conception and compilation, read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interest in publishing the manuscript.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Krishna Kumar Govindarajan, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatric Surgery, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, JIPMER Campus Road, Dhanvantari Nagar, Puducherry 605006, India. kkpeds@gmail.com
Received: February 26, 2025 Revised: April 6, 2025 Accepted: April 21, 2025 Published online: December 25, 2025 Processing time: 300 Days and 17 Hours
Abstract
The number of children requiring renal transplants is on the rise, increasing the need for the availability of donor kidneys. It is a challenge to match the need and the available pool. Hence, a renal transplant recipient undergoes rigorous scrutiny to ensure the best possible outcome. In this context, children with obesity harm the long-term outcome when they receive renal transplantation due to higher and more severe postoperative complications. In addition, reports indicate that renal graft survival appears to be compromised in recipient children who are obese. An in-depth review of the available evidence from the literature is required for better understanding.
Core Tip: Currently, there is an increase in the number of renal transplants in children globally. Due to the increasing need for renal grafts, there is a mismatch between the donor and recipient. To add to this problem, there is the problem of increased morbidity of renal transplantation in obese children, which is reviewed critically in this editorial.
