Renal transplantation in the elderly: South Indian experience.

In developing countries, renal transplantation is offered to young end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, while the older ones face limitations due to higher mortality risk. We retrospectively analyzed 225 patients who underwent renal transplantation from living donors, aged 40-60 years (Group A) and >60 years (Group B), focusing on their survival outcome. Group A (n = 181) had mean creatinine (mg/dL) 1.41 ± 0.84, 1.30 ± 0.65 and 1.40 ± 0.60 and mean eGFR (mL/min/1.73 m(2)) of 65.32 ± 23.03, 69.14 ± 32.65 and 59.21 ± 22.79 at 0, 3 and 6 months post-transplantation. Death-censored graft survival was 93.1% in first year followed by 91.2% in subsequent 4 years. Patient survival was 92.5% in first year, 90.7% in the next 2 years, and 89.2% in 4th year. Highest cumulative graft survival was 86.7% in the first year with 83.4%, 82.7% and 82.4% during the subsequent 3 years. Group B (n = 44) had mean creatinine (mg/dL) of 1.46 ± 1.02, 1.29 ± 0.23 and 1.2 ± 0.29 with a mean eGFR (mL/min/1.73 m(2)) of 67.90 ± 23.48, 67.02 ± 12.76 and 75.23 ± 15.19 at 0, 3 and 6 months. Highest death-censored graft survival was 97.4% in the first year with 94.7% in next 3 years. Patient survival was 88.1% throughout 4 years post-transplantation. Cumulative graft survival was 84.1% during 4 years. Biopsy-proven acute rejection rate was 28.7% in group A and 15.9% in group B (P = 0.058). There was higher mortality rate in group B with death mainly due to infections and cardiovascular complication. Cardiovascular risk assessment, pre-transplant cancer screening and judicious use of immunosuppressive agents should help minimize adverse events, balanced with an inherently reduced risk of acute rejection, hence the graft survival advantage and is the way forward to maximize patient and renal allograft survival in elderly patients.

Can serial eGFR, body mass index and smoking predict renal allograft survival in south Asian patients.

Limited data exist regarding long-term allograft survival in South Asian patients in the era of modern immunosuppressive therapy. This retrospective cohort study was undertaken to see the graft survival based on serial eGFR, immunosuppressive therapy, BMI and other confounding factors including smoking in patients who have undergone renal transplantation in a tertiary care center in south India. Three hundred and three kidney transplant recipients including live and cadaveric transplantation performed between 2001 and 2006 were included in this study. The mean graft survival after transplantation was 6.38 +/- 0.11 years, graft survival at one, two, three and five years were 95.7%, 92.72%, 91.72% and 89.21%, respectively. The mean serum creatinine and eGFR in the biopsy proven acute rejection (BPAR) group were 1.74 +/- 0.94 mg/dL and 43.73 +/- 13.65 mL/min com-pared with 1.24 +/- 0.59 mg/ dL and 61.50 +/- 17.40 mL/min in the non-BPAR group (P < 0.001 and P= 0.0159) respectively. The mean BMI in the BPAR group at one year was 26.59 +/- 3.18 kg/m 2 compared with 21.63 +/- 2.29 kg/m 2 in the non-BPAR group (P < 0.05). The mean graft survival in patients who were smokers at the time of pretransplant evaluation was 89.3% compared with 92.5% in the non-smokers (P=0.347). This retrospective cohort study found that serial eGFR, body mass index and smoking were significant predictors of graft survival following renal transplantation in South Asian patients.