Table 2. Relationship of illicit drug use and outcome among transplant recipients.
CI: confidence intervals; HR: hazards ratio; IDU: injecting drug use
| Author/ Year | Type of study | Sample size | Type of transplant | Outcome |
| Alhamed, (2019) | Analyzing database linking national kidney transplant records with Medicare claims | 52,689 | Kidney | Cannabis abuse or dependence in the year before the transplant was not associated with death or graft failure in the year after transplant Cannabis abuse or dependent in the pre-transplant period was associated with post-transplant alcohol and other drug use, non- compliance, schizophrenia and depression, mental status changes, delusions. Post-transplant cannabis use was also associated with graft loss |
| Kotwani, (2018) | Retrospective cohort of candidates listed for Liver transplant | 884 | Liver | Recent illicit drug use was associated with a higher risk of death or delisting Unlike illicit drug use, marijuana use was not associated with worse outcome among liver transplant waitlist candidates |
| Greenan, (2016) | Retrospective chart review | 1225 | Kidney | Isolated recreational marijuana use is not associated with poorer patient or kidney allograft outcomes at 1 year |
| Lamba, (2012) | Cross-sectional descriptive using a mailed questionnaire | 281 | Liver | Treatment non-adherence rate was higher than those with no history (61% vs 46%) of alcohol or drug use |
| Gottardi, (2010) | Analysis of data of individuals with a past history of IDU from transplantation registries | 59 | Liver | Past IDU not associated with poorer survival after liver transplant Relapse rate after liver transplant occurred in 3.4% |
| Ranney, (2009) | Retrospective cohort study | 2007 | Liver | Hepatitis C and transplantation were associated with survival, but not marijuana use was not (HR 1.09, 95% CI 0.78-1.54). A similar survival rate irrespective of marijuana use did not pose any additional risk of mortality among liver transplant patients |
| Robaeys, (2009) | Retrospective chart review of Chronic Hepatitis C patients | 67 | Liver | Same compliance and patient and graft survival among patients in the non-IDU group, and patients with chronic hepatitis C infected after IDU |
| Nickels, (2007) | Retrospective chart review of post-transplant recipients with pre-transplant polysubstance use | 27 | Liver | Rate of recidivism was 26.9% No effect on survival because of relapse to substance use |
| Kanchana, (2002) | Review of liver transplant recipient data | 185 | Liver | 5 transplant recipients (2.7%) had a history of heroin abuse and could not be weaned off from methadone maintenance treatment and had no negative effect on transplant outcome |
| Hanrahan, (2001) | Retrospective data analysis | 189 | Heart | The elevated rate of heart-related causes of death, noncompliance, and death related to noncompliance but no significant difference in the overall survival rate between substance users vs. non-substance user group |
| Shapiro, (1995) | Prospective study | 125 consecutive sample | Heart | Treatment non-adherence was associated with substance use |