Masoumeh Asgharpour
1, Seyed Hadi Mirhashemi
2, Amirhesam Alirezaei
3*1 Department of Nephrology, Rouhani Hospital, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran
2 Department of Surgery, Loghman hakim Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Urology and Nephrology Research Center, Shahid Modarres Hospital, Shahid-Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Diabetes is the most common cause of renal failure which is frequently seen in candidates of
solid organ transplant both before and after of the transplantation. For successful long-term
tissue graft, it is important to control blood glucose level particularly after transplantation.
Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is the main issue contributing to cardiovascularrelated mortality in kidney transplant recipients. Important risk factors of PTDM include
using immunosuppressive drugs, post-transplant weight gain and obesity, and the presence
of pre-transplant diabetes. Because of safety concerns, there has been a consensus from 2003
onward to cease metformin as the first-line anti-diabetic drug in patients with PTDM. The
relationship between PTDM and metformin administration in high-risk renal transplant
patients needs to be validated by more trial studies to establish the risk-benefit balance using
this drug. Here, we reviewed the pros and cons of using metformin by presenting conclusions
from several retrospective and clinical trial studies.
Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education:
Metformin is a safe and tolerable drug within one year after renal transplantation encouraging clinicians to administer this drug
to renal transplant candidates.
Please cite this paper as: Asgharpour M, Mirhashemi SH, Alirezaei A. Administration of metformin in renal transplant patients
with post-transplant diabetes mellitus. J Renal Inj Prev. 2019;8(3):190-194. DOI: 10.15171/jrip.2019.35.