Age Of Kidney Donor Up To 64 May Not Harm Outcome Of Transplant.

The New York Times  (3/27, D6, Bakalar, Subscription Publication) reports, "For most transplant patients, a kidney received from a donor as old as 64 is just as likely to be successful as one from a younger person," according to a new analysis  in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The analysis by researchers at the University of British Columbia, making use of "data from more than 50,000 living donor transplants from 1998 through 2003," indicated that "the age of the donor made no difference to the eventual success of the transplant -- except for recipients ages 18 to 39, who were more likely to succeed with a donor their own age." The authors also concluded that "waiting can be fatal...and an offer of a kidney should not be rejected simply because of the donor's age."