Pretransplant diabetes, not donor age, predicts long-term outcomes in cardiac transplantation.
OBJECTIVE
Accepting donors of advanced age may increase the number of hearts available for transplantation. Objectives were to review the outcomes of using cardiac donors 50 years of age and older and to identify predictors of outcome at a single institution.


METHODS
A retrospective analysis of all adult cardiac transplants (n = 338) performed at our institution between 1988 and 2002 was conducted.


RESULTS
Of these, 284 patients received hearts from donors <50 years old and 54 received hearts from donors > or =50 years old. Recipients of hearts from older donors had a greater frequency of pretransplant diabetes (19% vs 33%), renal failure (16% vs 30%), and dialysis (3% vs 9%). There were no differences in ICU or postoperative length of stay, days ventilated, or early rejection episodes. Recipients of older donor hearts, however, had increased perioperative mortality (7% vs 17%; p = 0.03). Multivariate analysis identified older donors (OR 2.599; p = 0.03) and donor ischemia time (OR 1.006; p = 0.002) as significant predictors of perioperative mortality. Actuarial survival at 1 (87% vs 74%), 5 (76% vs 69%), and 10 (59% vs 58%) years was similar (p = 0.08) for the two groups. Separate multivariate analyses identified pretransplant diabetes as the sole predictor of long-term survival (HR 1.659; p = 0.02) and transplant coronary disease (HR 2.486; p = 0.003).


CONCLUSIONS
Despite increased perioperative mortality, donors > or =50 years old may be used with long-term outcomes similar to those of younger donor hearts. This has potential to expand the donor pool. Pretransplant diabetes has a significant impact on long-term outcomes in cardiac transplantation and requires further investigation.
Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Canada.
Steven R
SR
Meyer
Dennis L
DL
Modry
Colleen M
CM
Norris
Glen J
GJ
Pearson
Michael J
MJ
Bentley
Arvind
A
Koshal
John C
JC
Mullen
Ivan M
IM
Rebeyka
David B
DB
Ross
Shaohua
S
Wang
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors