The relative importance of donor age in deceased and living donor kidney transplantation

In deceased donor kidney transplantation donor age is known to influence graft survival. The influence of living donor age on graft survival is questioned. We compared the influence of living and deceased donor age on the outcome of renal transplantation. All 1821 transplants performed in our center between 1990 and 2009 were included in the analysis. Observation was until April 2012. A total of 941 patients received a deceased donor kidney and 880 a living donor kidney. In multivariate Cox analysis, recipient age, maximum and current panel reactive antibodies, transplant year, HLA‐mismatches, donor age, donor gender, donor type, delayed graft function, and calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) and prednisone as initial immunosuppression were found to have a significant influence on death‐censored graft failure. The influence of both living and deceased donor age followed a J‐shaped curve, above 30 years the risk increased with increasing age. Donor type and donor age had an independent influence. The graft failure risk of deceased donor transplantation is almost twice that of living donor transplantation so that a 60‐year‐old living donor kidney has the same graft failure risk as a 20‐year‐old deceased donor kidney.