Old for young kidney transplantation: a responsible option for our patients to reduce waiting time?

Abstract

Purpose The Eurotransplant Senior program allocating grafts from donors≥65 years to recipients aged≥65 years has proven good results within the last 20 years. However, “old” grafts are also allocated to younger recipients<65 years, and this outcome of “old for young” kidney transplantations (KT) still lacks detailed investigations. Methods All “old for young” KT performed at four tertiary referral centers were retrospectively compared including a recent follow-up, stratifying for “old for young” (donor≥65 years to recipient<65 years) vs. “very old for young” KT (donor≥70 years to recipient<65 years). Results Overall, 99 patients were included with 56 (56.6%) “old for young” and 43 (43.4%) “very old for young” KT. The median waiting time did not difer (60.7 vs. 45.8 months, respectively) at comparable living donation rates (57.1% vs. 44.2%) as well as intra- and postoperative results. At a median follow-up of 44 months (range 1; 133), the 3-year graft survival of 91% vs. 87% did not signifcantly vary. In subgroup analyses assessing living donation or donation after brain death (DBD) KT only, the graft survival was signifcantly longer for “old for young” KT within the living donation subgroup. In multivariate Cox regression analyses, the presence of panel-reactive antibodies was the only signifcant impact factor on graft survival (HR 8.32, p=0.001). Conclusion This analysis clearly demonstrates the efectiveness of the "old for young" approach, enabling favorable perioperative results as well as comparable data of graft- and overall survival, while reducing waiting time for eligible patients.