Double Obstruction Following Third Renal Transplant: A Case Report

As the field of transplant evolves and patients with chronic disease live longer, retransplant for end-stage renal disease becomes more common because kidney allografts have a limited lifespan. In renal retransplant, graft and patient survival is near equivalent to first-time transplant; however, these procedures present a unique surgical risk profile, especially third and subsequent transplants, which are reviewed in this manuscript. The risk of bowel obstruction in primary kidney transplant recipients is much lower than patients who have undergone laparotomy for second or third transplant because of the retroperitoneal location of the transplanted kidney. Internal hernia is an uncommon cause of small bowel obstruction, particularly after kidney transplant, and often diagnosis and intervention are delayed because of diagnostic uncertainty. We report a case of a 34-year-old man with acute kidney injury and bowel obstruction, whose final diagnosis was an internal hernia around the transplanted ureter of an intra-abdominally placed third renal transplant resulting in ureteric obstruction associated with small bowel obstruction—a case of double obstruction.