Cardiovascular disease and/or elderly donors in renal transplantation: the outcome of grafts and patients.

Kidney transplant programs nowadays increasingly use elderly, hypertensive and cardiac disease donors (expanded criteria donors). The impact of these donors on patient and graft outcome was investigated in our transplant population. Among 257 consecutive cadaveric kidney transplants, 56 were from expanded criteria donors. The frequency of anuria, delayed graft function, and the days of renal failure were higher using organs from the expanded criteria donor group. Serum creatinine was higher in this group, although the statistical significance disappeared at 36 months. There were no significant differences in graft or patient survival during the first 3 years. The use of expanded criteria donors should not be discouraged, but recipient selection and immunosuppression use should be adapted and cold ischemia minimized.