The elderly are the fastest-growing population on waiting lists for kidney transplantation (KTx). Recognized barriers to KTx in the elderly is early post-transplant mortality and morbidity. To analyze the outcomes of KTx in recipients older than 60 years and, simultaneously, in their younger paired recipients, receiving a graft from the same donor. We included 328 kidney transplant recipients in the study. The elderly kidney transplant recipients (EKT) group included 164 patients aged 65 standard deviation (SD4) years. They were paired with younger kidney transplant recipients (YKT) aged 45 (SD12) years. The studied groups (EKT vs YKT) did not differ from the graft function estimated 1 year after the transplantation (50.7 mL/min vs 54.0 mL/min), while the estimated glomerular filtration rate decline was significantly faster in the YKT group. One-year patient survival (93.9% vs 97.0%), 1-year graft survival (90.4% vs 82.3%), and incidences of delayed graft function and acute rejection did not differ between the EKT and YKT groups. Significantly more cardiovascular complications and post-transplant diabetes mellitus were noticed in the EKT group. The long-term patient and graft survivals were poorer in the EKT group versus the YKT group, but death-censored graft survivals were the same. After having excluded donor-derived graft factors, there were no differences in the first-year outcome of KTx between recipients younger and older than 60 years. As life expectancy is lower in the EKT group, the probability of patient and graft survival was also significantly lower in this group. However, death-censored graft survival was not different in the EKT and YKT groups.

A pilot study of a 10-year analysis of the eyesight characteristics in patients after renal transplantation with a view to a later wider study of the same population. The study encompassed 50 eyes in 25 patients who underwent renal transplantation in the years 2007 and 2008. All patients underwent: visual acuity measurement, tonometry, slit lamp examination, and spectroscopic optical coherence tomography. Changes in the eyes observed during the 10-year observation period included mostly: cataract (48%), hypertensive angiopathy (28%), diabetic macular edema (16%), and glaucoma (16%). Ten years after the renal transplant visual acuity declined in 15 patients (60%). In 67% of those with eyesight deterioration the cause was cataract, while in patients with no changes in the eyesight (n = 10) cataract was diagnosed only in one. Patients with cataracts had been more often treated with cyclosporine, and that difference was statistically significant (73% vs 21%; P < .05). Comparing patients with hypertensive angiopathy with controls has shown that in the first group creatinine levels were statistically significantly higher (1.6 vs 1.16 mg/dL; P < .05). Patients with angiopathy had been also longer on renal replacement therapy before transplant (57 vs 26 months, P > .05), and this group included also statistically more persons after retransplantation (43% vs 5%, P < .05). Most frequent ophthalmological diagnoses in patients after a kidney transplant include cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and hypertensive angiopathy. Visual acuity deterioration was seen in 60% of patients and was mainly the effect of cataract progress. The effect of cyclosporine on cataract progress was significant. The diagnosis of hypertensive angiopathy corresponded with poorer function of the transplanted kidney.