Renal transplantation in high risk patients older than sixty years

Nine patients between the ages of sixty and seventy-one years, with end-stage renal failure, received kidney grafts during a five year period. Five received related donor kidneys and four received cadaver donor kidneys. Six of these patients are still alive--four of the five (80%) with related kidneys and two fo the four (50%) with cadaver kidneys. All six patients have normal kidney function an average of twenty-seven months after transplantation. We believe the elderly uremic patient should not be categorically excluded as kidney graft recipients on the basis of age alone. The prognosis of these patients treated by transplantation far exceeds that for uremic patients of the same age who are restricted to hemodialysis therapy.