The Effect of Donor Age on the Outcome of One HLA-haplotype Mismatched Living Related Kidney Transplantation

Kim, Jun Hong; Kim, Chan Duk; Kim, Seog Jae; Baek, Mi Young; Kwon, Tae Hwan; Kim, Yong Lim; Cho, Dong Kyu; Kim, Young Wook; Kwon, Tae Gyun; Chang, Sae Kook

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
Renal transplantation has become the ther apy of choice for patients suffering from end-stage renal disease. But because of progressive disparity between the number of patients in needs of a transplant and the num ber of ideal kidneys available for transplantation, increas ing numbers of kidneys are recovered for transplantation from donors that are not considered ideal, especially from donors over the age of 55. In country such as Korea, the number of cadaveric transplants is limited due to cultural and religious prejudices of the population, poor legal def inition and deficient organization of cadaveric donor work-up. Therefore the main source is living related donors(LRD), especially the parent. But in Korea, there is few reports about the influence of donor age on outcome in living related kidney transplantation. Thus we per formed this study to estimate the influence of donor age in itself on the outcome of the one HLA-haplotype mis matched living related kidney transplantation.
METHODS
The effect of donor age on the outcome of One HLA-haplotype mismatched living related kidney transplantation was studied in 71 recipients who under went kidney transplantation from January 1981 to March 1995. The outcomes of 25 recipients from the older age group(> OR =55 years: Group A) and 46 recipients from the younger age group(<55 years: Group B) were retro spectively reviewed. Patient death with a functioning graft was considered graft loss.
RESULTS
Demographic characteristics between 2 groups were similar. The 1-year and 3-year patient survival rates in recipients(group A and B) were similar regard less of donor age(96.0% and 90.8% vs.97.4% and 90.3%, respectively). The 1-year and 3-year graft survival rates in recipients(group A and B) were not significantly dif ferent (91.4% and 63.9% vs 92.7% and 79.3%, respec tively). The mean levels of serum creatinine at discharge were significantly higher in group A. Short-term and intermediate-term renal function, as assessed by serum creatinine, was inferior in the group A throughout the follow-up periods of 3 years. The causes of graft loss in the first 3 years after transplantation were irreversible rejection(71%) and the patient death with functioning graft(29%) in group A, while the causes of graft loss in group B were irreversible rejection(50%), patient death with a functioning graft(40%) and technical reason(10%).
CONCLUSION
These results of our analysis suggest that similar outcome can be achieved after living related renal transplantation from older donor. Therefore the kid neys may be used from donors over 55 years old on con dition that the donors undergo complete and exhaustive work-up.