Survival Advantage Comparing Older Living Donor Versus Standard Criteria Donor Kidney Transplants

Abstract

The aim of this analysis was to explore mortality outcomes for kidney transplant candidates receiving older living donor kidneys (age ≥60 years) versus younger deceased donors or remaining on dialysis. From 2000 to 2019, all patients on dialysis listed for their first kidney-alone transplant were included in a retrospective cohort analysis of UK transplant registry data. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, with survival analysis conducted by intention-to-treat principle. Time-to-death from listing was modelled using nonproportional hazard Cox regression models with transplantation handled as a time-dependent covariate. A total of 32,978 waitlisted kidney failure patients formed the primary study cohort, of whom 18,796 (58.5%) received a kidney transplant (1,557 older living donor kidneys and 18,062 standard criteria donor kidneys). Older living donor kidney transplantation constituted only 17.0% of all living donor kidney transplant activity (overall cohort; n = 9,140). Recipients of older living donor kidneys had reduced all-cause mortality compared to receiving SCD kidneys (HR 0.904, 95% CI 0.845–0.967, p = 0.003) and much lower all-cause mortality versus remaining on the waiting list (HR 0.160, 95% CI 0.149–0.172, p < 0.001). Older living kidney donors should be actively explored to expand the living donor kidney pool and are an excellent treatment option for waitlisted kidney transplant candidates.