Analysis of induction and maintenance immunosuppression choices in the US during the first year post kidney transplant for patients over 70

Abstract

Rates of kidney transplantation in patients over 70 years of age have steadily increased over the last 20 years, however age-appropriate immunosuppression regimens in the elderly remain unclear. Investigators utilized the SRTR database to evaluate elderly kidney transplant recipients’ outcomes against a younger population. Post-transplant outcomes measured at an approximately 1-year time interval included graft survival, patient survival, rejection, malignancy, and serum creatinine. Elderly patient survival was improved for those patients that were on dialysis for less than 1 year (95.4% vs. 91.4% p < .01). Patients able to be maintained on CNI immunosuppression regimens also had improved graft survival compared to those managed with other immunosuppression (95.5% vs. 91.1%, p < .01). Patients maintained on mTOR inhibitors had the lowest patient survival (85.5% vs. 92.6%, p < .01). The choice of induction therapy did not affect long term patient or graft survival. These results translated to investigators’ own centers in patients over 60. Results for the SRTR database showed that minimizing time on dialysis prior to transplant improved graft and patient survival, while the type of induction agent had minimal effect on all outcomes at the time of follow-up. The results also support the use of CNI’s and belatacept for maintenance immunosuppression but did not encourage the use of mTOR inhibitors.