UK National Registry Study of Kidney Donation After Circulatory Death for Pediatric Recipients.

BACKGROUND

Donation after circulatory death (DCD) kidney transplantation has acceptable renal allograft survival in adults but there are few data in pediatric recipients. The aim of this study was to determine renal allograft outcomes for pediatric recipients of a DCD kidney.

METHODS

Data were collected from the UK Transplant Registry held by National Health Service Blood and Transplant. Kidney transplants performed for pediatric recipients (age, <18 years) in the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2014 were separated into DCD, donation after brain death (DBD), and living donor (LD) transplants, analyzing 3-year patient and renal allograft survival.

RESULTS

One thousand seven hundred seventy-two kidney only transplants were analyzed. Twenty-one (1.2%) of these were from DCD donors, 955 (53.9%) from DBD donors, and 796 (44.9%) from LDs. Patient survival is 100% in the DCD group, 98.7% in the DBD group, and 98.9% in the LD group. Three-year renal allograft survival was 95.2% in the DCD group, 87.1% in the DBD group, and 92.9% in the LD group. There was no significant difference in 3-year renal allograft survival between the DCD and DBD groups (P = 0.42) or DCD and LD groups (P = 0.84). For DCD, the primary nonfunction rate was 5% and delayed graft function was 25%.

CONCLUSIONS

Children receiving a DCD kidney transplant have good renal allograft survival at 3-year follow-up, comparable to those receiving a kidney from a DBD donor or a LD. This limited evidence encourages the use of selected DCD kidneys in pediatric transplantation, and DCD allocation algorithms may need to be reviewed in view of this.