Kidney transplantation from living related donors aged more than 60 years: a single center experience

To evaluate whether the outcomes of renal grafts from living related donors more than 60 years old are acceptable, in terms of renal function and patient/graft survival.

Twenty-one patients who received kidneys from donors older than 60 years constituted the study group (Group 1). The control group (Group 2) consisted of 110 patients who received renal transplants from ideal donors, aged 18 to 45 years. The recipients were analyzed for posttransplantation serum creatinine, the number of acute rejection episodes and delayed graft function, and patient/graft survival.

The mean age of donors was 62.6 ± 2.2 years in Group 1 and 32.8 ± 7.0 years in Group 2. Recipient serum creatinine was higher on postoperative day 1, year 1, year 5 in Group 1 than that in Group 2 (536.8 ± 203.3 vs. 409.8 ± 213.8, 142.4 ± 38.2 vs. 100.3 ± 22.9, 152.6 ± 42.7 vs. 107.1 ± 22.1, respectively; all p < 0.05). Acute rejection was seen in 4 cases in Group 1 (19.0%) and in 15 cases in Group 2 (13.6%; p = 0.759). Delayed graft function was seen in two cases in Group 1 (9.5%) and in four cases in Group 2 (3.6%; p = 0.540). One-, 3- and 5-year patient survival was 100%, 100% and 100% for Group 1, and 97%, 97% and 97% for Group 2. Corresponding death-censored graft survival was 100%, 100% and 100% for Group 1, and 98%, 98% and 96% for Group 2. No significant difference was observed in terms of patient/graft survival.

Although compromising renal function, donor age did not affect patient and graft survival in the 5-year follow-up in our study. Age alone seems not to be an exclusion criterion to living kidney donation.