Living or Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Comparison of Results and Survival Rates Among Iranian Patients

Objective

Kidney transplantation is the selective treatment of end-stage renal disease. Although most previous studies have concluded that living kidney donation achieves better graft survival, some factors may limit this type of donation. This study investigated the survival rates of living and deceased donor kidney transplantations among Iranian patients.

Materials and Methods

The records of kidney transplantations up to year 2005 were used to compare 50 deceased (group I) with 50 living donor transplants (group II). The recipients were matched by transplantation time. We used SPSS version 15 software to analyze the data.

Results

Group I patients included 28 males and 22 females of mean age of 38 ± 13 years, while 26 males and 24 females in group II had a mean age of 34.6 ± 14 years. The rejection and graft nephrectomy rates were significantly higher among group I than group II (P = .01, P = .02). The first-year graft survival was higher in group II (P = .001). The graft survival was significantly lower in recipients who needed a biopsy or dialysis (P = .006 and P = .02, respectively) and higher among those who had a urine volume >4200 mL within the first 24 hours after transplantation (P = .003). Patient survivals were not significantly different between the groups.

Conclusion

Living donor kidney transplantations showed higher graft survival and lower acute rejection rates compared with those from deceased donors.