Study: Kidney Transplant Success Rates Similar in Older Patients

Age alone should not prevent older adults from being organ donors – or from receiving a kidney transplant themselves – since success rates are similar in older and younger patients, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

In a study of 129 transplant patients who received kidneys from deceased donors, the researchers compared 96 recipients aged 19 to 59 to 33 transplant recipients 60 years of age and older.

“An average followup of 17 months showed no difference in patient survival or kidney survival,” said Dr. Robert Stratta, reporting at the American Transplant Congress in Boston.

“You can no longer make the argument that transplanting a kidney into an older recipient is a wasted organ," Stratta added.

He reported that two-thirds of the patients in the older group received kidneys from expanded criteria donors (ECDs) -- deceased donors over age 60, or donors over age 50 with at least two of the following: high blood pressure, fatal stroke, or certain levels of a protein called creatinine.

“The older group did equally well, in spite of the fact that they usually received kidneys from older donors,” said Stratta, who has performed transplants in patients as old as 76.

Other Sources:Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center