Kidney Transplants Could Be More Plentiful — And Safe — If U.S. Eased Age Limits, Study Finds

Peter Reese couldn’t believe what he just heard.

The associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania was in France for a yearlong sabbatical when someone mentioned an 83-year-old kidney donor.

“I really wondered whether or not I misheard them," he said, adding he was still getting used to speaking French. A donor that old would be extraordinary, especially in the U.S. where the average age of a kidney donor is 39 year.

In France, where the average age of a donor is about 56, kidneys are not automatically rejected from older donors or if the person had health issues like high blood pressure or diabetes, factors that would get them excluded U.S. French organ centers are far more likely to use “lower-rated kidneys” for transplant, Reese found.

Used for older transplant recipients, French success rates show that kidneys from donors in their 50s and 60s represent an untapped opportunity to extend life, the study found.

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