Successful lung transplant cases with ex vivo lung perfusion assessment of extended criteria donor lungs

We report our successful experience in two lung transplant cases in which ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) was used to evaluate the function of injured brain-dead donor lungs that were otherwise initially unacceptable. After the donor's lungs were declined for transplantation by all other transplant centers, the lungs were offered to the patients listed for lung transplantation in our hospital. The donor lung function was considered acceptable for transplantation after the 3-h EVLP assessment. In the first case, a 32-year-old man with bronchiolitis obliterans after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation underwent hybrid lung transplantation, that was right brain-dead donor lung transplantation, combined with native-upper lobe sparing living-donor lobar lung transplantation on the left side. In the second case, a 61-year-old woman received the right single lung transplantation for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Both patients are doing well at one and a half years after lung transplantation.

Automated summary

This article reports successful cases of lung transplantation using ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) to evaluate the function of injured donor lungs. After being declined by other transplant centers, the lungs were offered to patients at the authors' hospital. The outcomes of the two cases suggest that EVLP may expand the pool of acceptable donor lungs for transplantation.