Age is no barrier for kidney donation

I remember reading somewhere that someone who needs a kidney transplant would rather live with an older one with lots of mileage than die with their younger malfunctioning one. This rings very true to me. After all, if the kidney still works, why should age of the donor be a factor? Plus, with the extreme organ donation shortage we experience across the world, we shooting ourselves in the foot by eliminating an entire group of potential donors, just because of their age.

When matching organs, particularly kidneys, there is a rule of thumb that doctors like to work with and that’s to have the ages of the donor and the recipient as close together as possible (within 10 years or so), but that’s not always the case because of all the other factors that have to be taken into consideration. Sometimes, they may have a kidney that’s from a 70-year-old, but the only person who matches it completely is someone in his or her 30s.

So, the good news is that new research , published in the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine , shows that kidneys from donor who were over 70 years old appeared to be working as well 2 years after transplant as those who were transplanted from donors who were 10 years younger.

I think this is great news for those who really want to be sure that they leave behind a chance for others to live and for those who are waiting to see if they’ll receive such a gift.

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