Kidney transplantation in the elderly: age-matching as compared to HLA-matching: a single center experience.

Background. We report the short-term outcome of our patients participating within the Eurotransplant age-matching program, where kidneys from donors >65 years are transplanted to recipients >65 years regardless of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) compatibility but with short cold ischemia times, in comparison with patients >60 years transplanted with HLA-matching. Methods. Twenty-five patients (66.7±2.6 years) (donors 69±4.3 years) participated in this program (group A). The control group consisted of 21 patients (63±2.6 years) (group B) (donors 47.6±17.3 years). Results. Despite significant differences in donor age, cold ischemia time (12.3±4.6 hr in A, 22.8±4.8 hr in B, P<0.001) and a mean of 4.4±1.4 vs. 2.3±1.6 HLA-mismatches (P<0.001), there was no difference regarding the incidence of delayed graft function (64 vs. 57%), rejections (52 vs. 66.7%), infections (56 vs. 52.4%), and other complications (80 vs. 71.4%). Mean serum creatinine after 6 months was 1.94±0.49 and 1.83±0.67 mg/dl (NS). Conclusion. The short-term results of the age-matching program are promising and comparable with results from patients of similar age with HLA-matching.