The committee that has put this allocation protocol together has done an incredible amount of work, and I give them a great deal of credit for that. One thing the committee hopes could happen with this new allocation system is that the number of discarded kidneys from older donors might go down because transplant centers might be more likely to use those kidneys in older patients. I don’t think we should exclude patients from kidney transplants based on age; we should include them based on opportunities to change their lives in a positive way by getting them off dialysis. Any opportunity to get transplanted is an opportunity for someone to have an improved quality of life.
Dr. Mitchell Henry is an American College of Surgeons Fellow and director of transplantation at the Ohio State University, Columbus.