Kidney transplants from elderly donors: what we have learned 20years after the Crystal City consensus criteria meeting.

Abstract

Based on the current projection of the general population and the combined increase in end-stage kidney disease with age, the number of elderly donors and recipients is increasing, raising crucial questions about how to minimize the discard rate of organs from elderly donorsand improve graft and patient outcomes. In 2002, extended criteria donors were the focus of a meeting in Crystal City (VA, USA), with a goal of maximizing the use of organs from deceased donors. Since then, extended criteria donors have progressively contributed to a large number of transplanted grafts worldwide, posing specific issues for allocation systems, recipient management, and therapeutic approaches. This review analyzes what we have learned in the last 20years about extended criteria donor utilization, the promising innovations in immunosuppressive management, and the molecular pathways involved in the aging process, which constitute potentialtargets for novel therapies.