Justin Steggerda, MD
Credit: Cedars-Sinai
New research is shedding light on inequities posed by the “pediatric advantage” of current kidney transplant allocation policies, which disadvantage patients who initiated dialysis as children but were not waitlisted until after 18 years of age.1
Leveraging waitlist registration and transplant outcome data from the OPTN Standard Transplant and Research (STAR) file, the study found patients who initiated dialysis at a younger age but were not listed until ≥ 18 years of age do not reap the pediatric advantages of obtaining a high-quality deceased donor organ. Rather, these patients are the most likely to be removed from the waitlist, spend the longest time on dialysis, have the longest allocation time, and demonstrate the worst graft survival.1
“Current allocation policies…