Analysis of Cadaver Donor Criteria on the Kidney Transplant Survival Rate in 5,129 Transplantations

Abstract

To clarify the role of donor criteria we retrospectively analyzed a series of 5,129 cadaver kidney grafts harvested from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 1991. Graft survival was calculated and analyzed using a multifactorial approach. Better graft survival was obtained with donors between 6 and 50 years old (80 percent versus 64 percent at 3 years), grafts performed from male donors (74 percent versus 69 percent at 3 years), donor deaths caused by cranial injury as opposed to cerebral hemorrhage (74 percent versus 70 percent at 3 years) and negative cytomegalovirus antibodies (75 percent versus 71 percent at 3 years). These factors may be used for kidney allocation.