Utilization of suboptimal kidney donors

Abstract

In recent years over 30% of cadaver donors utilized in the Emilia Romagna (ER) region are over 60 years of age often with some additional risk factors. The organs of these Suboptimal Kidney Donors (SOKD) had been seldomly accepted from 1996 to 1999 (Group 1). From 2000, marking the beginning of use of double transplantation for marginal kidneys, a routine biopsy was performed for SOKD using the Score System proposed by Remuzzi. (Group 2) The 40% of marginal kidneys harvested were utilize in 76% of cases. The few biopsies available for Group 1 patients testify that good kidneys had been discarded, but even in Group 2, when we followed the biopsy Score, strictly several mistakes were suspected: kidneys discarded for an unbelievable difference of 2 points between two kidneys of the same size, cases with an high score based on only a few glomeruli, double kidney transplants that become single and still had fair functions. In the future the utilization of SOKD should probably be improved: (1) with scores only based on a biopsy specimen with more than 25 glomeruli, (2) a score system for incorporating clinical data, and (3) continuous perfusion preservation of kidneys whose characteristics provide some more information that may mitigate some of the damage of marginal donor kidneys.