Expanded Criteria Donor With Severe Acute Kidney Injury: Worth to Use?

•Expanded criteria donors are significant sources for kidney transplant.•Acute kidney injury is common before brain death declaration.•Creatinine rising before retrieval may not be related to poor long-term graft outcome.•Kidneys from expanded criteria donors with acute kidney injury can be used successfully.•Kidneys from donors with acute kidney injury should not be discarded. Expanded criteria donors (ECDs) may present with acute kidney injury (AKI). Many transplantation centers refuse to use these kidneys because of concerns about poor transplant outcomes, resulting in a high discard rate. However, long-term results of ECDs with AKI (ECDs + AKI) have not been extensively studied. We retrospectively compared outcomes of ECDs with ECDs + AKI. Primary outcome was 5-year allograft and patient survival rate. Secondary outcomes were allograft function, rates of delayed graft function, and allograft rejection. Of 743 deceased donor kidney transplant recipients, 95 ECD cases were included in this study. There were 38 patients (40%) with ECDs and 57 patients (60%) with ECDs + AKI. Mean donor creatinine was progressively higher with severity of AKI. Five-year graft and patient survival were comparable between ECDs and ECDs + AKI (80.6% vs 81.1%, P = .95 and 91.7% vs 88.7%, P = .73). Mean (SD) allograft estimated glomerular filtration rate was 36.7 (14.5) vs 40.6 (22.7) mL/min/1.73 m2 with P = .61, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed factors associated graft loss were delayed graft function (P = .01) and donor-recipient age difference ≥10 years (P = .038), not AKI status. Kidney transplant from ECDs + AKI has comparable allograft survival with ECDs without AKI. Use of ECDs + AKI is worthwhile and kidneys from ECDs + AKI should not be discarded. Recipient selection and perioperative care are important to optimize the use of scarce resource.