Kidneys from 60+ donors

I found this great article that explains a shift in the usage of kidneys from donors of 60+ years. The article mainly describes that the donors 60+ are being taken into consideration, but under one condition, that the patient that is getting the allograft has two kidneys in order to compensate for the body’s need of nephrons. The kidneys in early years from 60+ were used as rejects due to the renal-function deterioration. This was also mentioned in one of the SNBAL readings of Delmonico et al, and Remuzzi et al.


Johnson, Lynt B.1,2; Kuo, Paul C.1; Schweitzer, Eugene J.1; Ratner, Lloyd E.3; Klassen, David K.4; Hoehn-Saric, Edward W.4; dela Torre, Andrew1; Weir, Matthew R.4; Strange, Julie5; Bartlett, Stephen T.1

The shift in age distribution in the cadaveric donor pool to a greater percentage of older donors continues to increase. Innovative approaches to successfully maximize utilization of older donor kidneys for transplantation are necessary to meet the demands for renal transplantation. A review of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS*) Scientific Renal Transplant Registry identified inferior graft survival and graft function in kidneys transplanted from donors >60 years old when compared with all other donor age groups (1). Most strikingly, the use of kidneys from donors aged 19-30 years resulted in an 85% 1-year graft survival rate compared with 72% when the kidneys were from donors >60 years(P<0.001). 2
http://www.transplantjournal.com/pt/re/transplantation/fulltext.00007890-199612150-00009.htm;jsessionid=EghCcpJzrP0l29Ayfhfn9KDD7676BcVMLOFFNTQWH1owfrrB2C13!-1070481199!-949856145!9001!-1