Background:

Kidney transplantation is considered the most effective renal replacement therapy for chronic kidney disease. Recently, kidney transplantation is increasing in elderly recipients. Aged patients who have a kidney transplant have relevant advantages compared to dialysis reported in the literature such as better survival.

Objective:

We aimed to assess graft and patient survival in a cohort of elderly kidney transplant recipients.

Materials and Methods:

We retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 193 patients older than 60 years who received a kidney transplant from 2008 to 2019 in our transplant centers. Our study included sociodemographic and clinical variables to determine patient and graft survival at 1, 5 and 10 years after kidney transplantation using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the potential risk factors for graft loss during the first year of transplantation.

Results:

The mean recipient age was 64.62 ± 3.82 years old. The 1, 5 and 10-year death-censored graft survival rates were 90%, 86% and 75% and uncensored graft survival probability was 82%, 63% and 43% at 1, 5 and 10 years, respectively. The main mortality causes were infections and cardiovascular disease. Patient survival was 89%, 70% and 55% at 1, 5 and 10 years, respectively. Independent graft loss risk factors in the first year posttransplant were: age >70 (HR 4.2; 95% CI 1.1-15.3), female sex (HR 2.7; 95% CI 1.01-7.3) and non-compliance (HR 8.1; 95% CI 2.1-30.7).

Conclusion:

We found that older patients experience good outcomes following renal transplantation. There is a need to determine suitable older recipients based on objective selection criteria where age should not be a barrier to the kidney transplant.

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