Does donor-recipient age difference matter in outcome of heart transplantation?

Objective: Potential interactions between donor-recipient age difference and outcomes after heart transplantation are not well known. We thus aimed to study the impact of donor-recipient age difference on heart transplantation outcomes.

Methods: Between 1995 and 2017, we assessed 234 heart transplantation patients. Based on donor-recipient age difference histogram, we stratified these patients into three groups: older donors (donor-recipient difference > 0; n = 48), younger donors (donor-recipient difference 0 to -20 years; n = 82), and much younger donors (donor-recipient difference <-20 years; n = 104).

Results: The baseline metabolic risk profile of the recipients was significantly higher for the much younger donor group compared with the younger and older groups, including hypertension (52% vs 33% vs 25%, P = 0.002), dyslipidemia (51% vs 51% vs 29%, P = 0.027), diabetes (30% vs 16% vs 17%, P = 0.044), and smoking history (53% vs 46% vs 29%, P = 0.024), respectively. There were no significant differences between the groups in long-term survival, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, or rejection-free survival in unadjusted and adjusted analyses. In the much younger donor group, gender matching was associated with a lower incidence of primary graft dysfunction (37% vs 58% P = 0.05).

Conclusions: Donor-recipient age difference does not significantly impact long-term heart transplantation outcomes.