Introduction: In the current era of scarcity of kidneys available for transplantation, and chronic anti-HLA-mediated rejection as a main cause of graft loss, continuous demonstration of the long-term survival of grafts from living unrelated kidney donors (LURD) is paramount.
Objective: Analyze long-term kidney graft and patient outcomes using LURD, and compare them with living related donors (LRD).
Methods: We analyzed the 389 first renal transplantations performed with a living donor (281 LRD and 108 LURD), in a single center, from January 1998 through December 2007.
Results: There were no significant differences between LRD and LURD as refers to patient survival (89.1% vs. 84.7%, p = 0.40, respectively) and graft survival (81.1% vs. 68.9%, p = 0.77, respectively), 10 years post-transplantation. On Cox proportional regression model of multivariate analysis, panel reactive antibodies (PRA) > 10% and the occurrence of acute rejection in the first year posttransplantation were the only independent predictors of graft loss (HR 2.54, 95% CI 1.35 -4.78; p < 0.05 and HR 4.1, 95% CI 2.04 - 4.78; p < 0.05, respectively).
Conclusion: LURD are an important source of organs for renal transplantation, with results similar to those obtained with LRD, regardless of HLA matching.