Kidney transplantation in patients aged sixty years and older

Outcomes of renal transplantation were reviewed for 26 transplants performed in 25 patients 60 years of age or older between 1985 and 1989. Three grafts were from family donors and 23 were from cadaver donors. Twenty-one were first transplants and five were retransplants. Cyclosporine was used as primary immunosuppression and azathioprine and prednisone were administered to most patients. Overall patient and graft actuarial survival rates were 79% and 71%, respectively, at both 1 and 3 years. Patients (n = 14) free of both diabetes and cardiac disease (low risk) had 1- and 3-year patient and graft survival rates of 91% and 84%, respectively. Conversely, high-risk patients (n = 12) had patient and graft survival rates at 1 and 3 years of 67% and 58%, respectively. Early deaths (less than or equal to 6 months) were caused by sepsis (two patients) or cardiac events (three patients), and four of the five were in high-risk patients. Irreversible rejections and serious infectious complications were not as common as steroid-induced diabetes, which occurred in five patients. This experience suggests that kidney transplantation can be done safely and successfully in patients older than 60 years of age and should be the treatment of choice for low-risk patients in this category.