Age matching improves graft survival after living donor kidney transplantation.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Donor and recipient age in kidney transplantation are known to affect

graft and patient survival. To address the question of whether the age difference

between donor and recipient impacts on graft survival and death-censored graft

survival after transplantation, we examined the impact of age matching (less than

10-year age difference) on the survivals after living donor kidney

transplantation. METHODS: Two hundred one cases of the primary living donor

kidney transplantation were performed and were divided into two groups,

age-matched (n = 123) versus age-discrepant (n = 78). Variables included in this

study were age, gender, body weight, height, kidney disease, type and duration of

dialysis before transplantation, degree of human leukocyte antigen mismatch,

ischemic time, graft weight, episode of rejection, type of immunosuppression,

recipient serum creatinine after transplantation, and causes of patient death and

graft loss. RESULTS: We observed the disparities of graft survival (P = .008) and

death-censored graft survival (P = .003) between the groups. One-, 3-, and 5-year

death-censored graft survival was 100%, 100%, and 97% in the age-matched group,

respectively; and 97%, 90%, and 88% in the age-discrepant group, respectively. By

Cox regression multivariate analysis, the variable of age-matching was an

independent predictor for both graft survival (ss = 1.325, P = .017) and

death-censored graft survival (ss = 2.217, P = .021). CONCLUSION: During living

donor and recipient matching, age difference between donor and recipient should

be minimized.