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Expanded-Criteria Donor Kidneys: A Single-Center Clinical and Short-Term Financial Analysis—Cause for Concern in Retransplantation

Background. Expanded-criteria donor (ECD) kidneys are associated with a higher risk of posttransplant failure, but they remain a favorable alternative to dialysis. Now that a uniform definition of “expanded criteria” exists, it is more appropriate than ever to evaluate their utility compared with that seen with non-ECD kidneys. Methods. The authors analyzed 202 cadaveric kidney-only recipients that underwent transplantation from January 1999 to September 2001, including 45 (22%) recipients whose donors met current ECD criteria. Results. ECD and non-ECD kidney recipients had similar pretransplant characteristics except for older age and increased duration of renal failure in the ECD group. Patient, graft, and death-censored graft survival in both groups were similar in primary recipients but significantly worse in retransplant recipients of ECD kidneys. The relative risk of death-censored graft loss was 1.58 in the ECD group (P=0.45). Overall inpatient charges (minus organ acquisition charge) for 1 year posttransplant were $76,962 (ECD) versus $71,026 (non-ECD) (P=0.53); the same charges in retransplant recipients were $136,596 (ECD) versus $91,296 (non-ECD) (P=0.25). ECD recipients, especially retransplant recipients, had consistently higher creatinine concentrations, although the average current value of all functioning ECD grafts remains less than 2 mg/dL. ECD recipients had a higher incidence of ureteral stricture (4.4% vs. 0%), but this never resulted in graft loss. Conclusions. Considering the widening disparity between renal allograft availability and need and the fact that ECD kidneys provide superior outcomes compared with dialysis, the authors’ data encourage the continued use of ECD kidneys in primary recipients but justify caution in the retransplant setting.