OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to estimate resource use and associated costs of care among recipients of kidney transplant according to donor type, from the perspective of the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS). METHODS: The KIT73 study was a retrospective observational study conducted at 7 transplant centers, including 498 adult single kidney only transplant recipients from Jan/2004 to Jan/2005. Recipients were identified by donor type (living (LD) or deceased (DD)). The DD group was further stratified by standard criteria donors (SCD) or expanded criteria donors (ECD). Five-year costs were adjusted to 2004 at an annual discount rate of 5% and converted to 2010 USD. A case mix group costing approach was used to determine average costs per day of hospitalization, stratified by cause (surgical or clinical complication) and type (general ward, Intensive Care Unit (ICU). RESULTS: All 498 recipients were included in the analyses. For both groups (LD or DD), total inpatient costs of care were higher than total outpatient costs (excluding medications) at 1 and 5 years. LD recipients incurred significantly lower costs than DD recipients: mean (SD) costs per patient were USD1,460 (USD1,813) (LD) v0.s USD2,785 (USD 3,615) (DD) (p=0.0001) in the first year; USD288 (USD599) (LD) vs. USD568 (USD1,540) (DD) (p=0.01) in the fifth year. Comparison between SCD and ECD groups, however, showed that the mean (SD) costs per patient were USD2,692 (USD3,616) (SCD) vs. USD3,767 (USD5,481) (ECD) (p=0.377);  USD545 (USD1,540) (SCD) vs. USD810 (USD1,117) (ECD) (p=0.146) in the fifth year. CONCLUSIONS: Recipients of kidney transplants from living donors had lower costs over five years as compared to recipients of transplants from deceased donors. Among recipients from deceased donors, no statistical difference was observed in the comparison between ECD and SCD recipients.