Introduction:

the most important viral infection after renal transplantation is cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. There is a discrepancy between centers and countries in terms of incidence data of infection-disease in this population of patients.

Design:

an analytical observational study was conducted, taking a retrospective cohort of patients older than 18 years old, kidney transplant recipients of living or cadaveric donors between 2004 and 2015, with at least 6 months of follow-up.

Material and methods:

non-probability convenience sampling was done; data from the clinical records of the kidney transplant patients were taken, calculating the incidence density of CMV infection-disease and the clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients who presented these pathologies were described.

Results:

252 patients were analyzed; 92.4% of recipients with intermediate risk for CMV and 7.5% with high risk were found. None of them had low risk. 19 cases were identified, 13 with infection (5.1%) and 6 with disease (2.3%). Gastrointestinal involvement was the most frequent. The average time from the time of transplant to the onset of the infection-disease was 417 (± 479) and 650 days (± 481), respectively. The infection rate was 10.08 cases per 1000 patients / year and the disease rate was 5.88 per 1000 patients/year.

Conclusions:

the incidence density of CMV infection-disease in renal transplant patients was 10.08 cases and 5.88 cases per 1000 patients / year, respectively. These rates are lower than those reported in the literature. Given the low frequency of events, it was not possible to establish association factors. (Acta Med Colomb 2018; 43: 20-23).