Duration of donor brain death and its influence on kidney graft function

Short- and long-term rates of success after cadaveric kidney transplantation are significantly inferior to those from living related or unrelated donors. The major difference between cadaveric and living donation is brain death. In the present study we analyzed the influence of duration of brain death on short- and long-term graft function after cadaveric kidney transplantation. The interval between declaration of donor brain death and the beginning of the cold ischemia time before graft explantation was defined as duration of brain death (DBD). The influence of DBD on incidence of primary graft function and on duration of delayed kidney graft function as well as on kidney graft survival was analyzed in 1106 patients transplanted in one center and confirmed in a validation study of a second series of 752 kidney graft recipients from another transplant center. Kidney grafts harvested from donors with longer DBD (>470 min) exhibited a significantly higher incidence of primary graft function and a significantly better graft survival rate in comparison to kidneys from donors with a shorter DBD (<470 min). The tendency of these results could be confirmed in an independent validation study; however, the differences were not statistically significant. Although the dramatic hemodynamic and immunological changes in brain-dead donors may impair the quality of a potential kidney transplant, a longer duration of donor brain death did not deteriorate early and long-term kidney graft function.