Purpose: The limited availability of kidneys for transplantation has been addressed by expanding the criteria for allowing a donor kidney to be transplanted, but this tendency may cause suboptimal kidneys to be implanted and could be associated with greater risk of complications.
Methods: A retrospective study of 407 kidney transplantations was done to compare complications of transplantation with non-expanded (n = 244) and expanded criteria donors (n = 163). Expanded criteria donors were donors older than 60 years, or donors aged 50-60 years who had ≥ 2 of the following risk factors: hypertension, diabetes mellitus (type 2), creatinine >1.5 mg/dL, or death caused by stroke.
Results: Compared with transplant recipients from non-expanded criteria donors, transplant recipients from expanded criteria donors had significantly greater frequency of graft loss, delayed graft function, pneumonia, overall surgical complications, early reoperation, wound eventration, hydronephrosis, postoperative hemorrhage, and wound infection. When analyzing surgical complications types, a significant greater frequency of urologic, wound, vascular, early and late surgical complications was found. In terms of severity, expanded donor criteria transplantation was related to Clavien I, III, and IV complications.
Conclusions: Transplantation of kidneys from expanded criteria donors is associated with a significant higher risk of medical and surgical complications than kidneys from non-expanded criteria donors.