Do elderly patients deserve a kidney graft?

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Compare renal transplant long-term outcomes among recipients aged 60 years or older with those in younger patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed 103 transplants in recipients above 60 years of age for the influence of key factors related to the graft and patient. The results were compared with 1060 transplant recipients aged 18 to 59 years. RESULTS: The mean ages were 62.93 and 40.35 years for the older and younger group. The older group showed a higher prevalence of obesity and unknown etiologies for the end-stage renal disease. Important comorbidity was significantly more frequent among recipients aged more than 60 years, mainly of a cardiovascular nature (56% vs 18.5%). Donor age (39.75 vs 31.59 years), cold ischemia time (22.43 vs 20.49 hours) and human leukocyte antigen compatibilities (2.59 vs 2.36) were significantly greater in the older subset. After a mean follow-up of 4.72 and 6.07 years for the older versus younger group, we found no differences in initial graft function, acute rejection rate, and serum creatinine/clearance. Patient and graft survivals at 1, 5, and 10 years were lower among the 60+ group. There were no differences in graft survival censored for death with a functioning graft, namely, 95.1%, 89.4%, and 81.2% for the 60+ cohort. The main cause of graft loss in the older group was death with a functioning graft. CONCLUSION: Renal transplantation should be considered for selected patients older than 60 years. Despite a shorter life expectancy, they benefit from it similar to younger recipients.