Evaluation of Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation in the Eurotransplant Senior Program in Comparison to Standard Allocation.

BACKGROUND The organ shortage and long waiting times have dramatically increased the age of potential kidney transplant recipients. The Eurotransplant Senior Program (ESP) was initiated to allocate kidneys from deceased donors aged ≥65 years to recipients with a comparable age independent of pre-transplant human leucocyte antigen (HLA) matching; however, parameters affecting the long-term benefits of this strategy remain poorly defined. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively evaluated outcome and risk factors for mortality in kidney recipients aged ≥65 years that were transplanted according to the ESP protocol relative to patients aged >50 years transplanted according to the Eurotransplant kidney allocation system (ETKAS) criteria at the University Freiburg Medical Center, Germany, between 2008 and 2018.