Skin Diseases in Organ Transplant Recipients

As transplant recipients live longer, they experience more complications of long-term immunosuppression.

Organ transplant recipients on long-term immunosuppressive therapy frequently develop skin diseases, especially cutaneous infections and malignancies. However, disease frequency and time from transplantation to disease onset have not been well defined. Investigators in the Netherlands identified patients with skin disease diagnoses from a database of renal and renal/pancreas transplant recipients. Included were 1768 patients; 1225 had already received transplants when the database was started in 1994, and 543 received transplants between 1994 and 2006.

The investigators identified 2408 dermatological diagnoses in 801 patients (45%). About half of the diagnoses were skin tumors, both benign and malignant. The most common tumor types were squa…

Reviewing Author

Craig A. Elmets, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory board Astellas Pharmaceuticals

EquityVaxin

Grant / Research support NIH; NIH/NCI; Veteran’s Administration; Ferndale Laboratories; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Pharma, Inc.

Editorial boards Cancer Prevention Research; Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, & Photomedicine; UpToDate; eMedicine; Journal of Dermatological Sciences; JAMA Dermatology

Leadership positions in professional societies American Academy of Dermatology (Vice Chair, Committee on Science and Research); Photomedicine Society (Board of Directors)