Survival of patients older than 60 years with kidneys transplanted from Spanish expanded criteria donors versus patients continued on hemodialysis.

A retrospective study was performed in patients >60 years of age who had initiated hemodialysis (HD) at our hospital between 2000 and 2005 (n = 211). Of these, 47 were placed on the kidney transplantation waiting list and 164 were excluded and continued on HD. Cadaveric transplantation was performed in 31 patients using an expanded criteria donor organ (TR), while 16 remained on the waiting list (WL). We compared the 12-month survivals of patients in the 3 groups (TR/WL/HD), namely, 97%/78%/75% (P < .045). Survival at 24, 36, 48, and 60 months for TR/HD were 89%/57%; 86%/43%; 79%/32%; and 70%/16% (P < .001). HD patients showed greater comorbidity than TR patients: Charlson index >8 was 67.9% vs 19.4%. A total of 23.7% of patients were excluded solely due to advanced age. We compared survivals among the TR patients vs those excluded only because of age using paired comorbidity (Charlson index <8): 97%/95%, 89%/58%, and 86%/44% at 12, 24, and 36 months (P < .023). We concluded that kidney transplantation with an expanded criteria donor organ in elderly patients was a procedure that provided greater survival than HD for patients excluded from transplantation, for patients on the WL who did not receive a transplant, and for patients excluded solely due to advanced age who showed comorbidity comparable to the transplant recipients. According to our data, elderly patients with low comorbidity should be considered for inclusion on the WL for transplantation.