Unilateral chronic lung allograft dysfunction is a characteristic of bilateral living-donor lobar lung transplantation

OBJECTIVES: Living-donor lobar lung transplantation (LDLLT) has been established as a life-saving procedure for critically ill patients who cannot wait for cadaveric lung transplantation. Chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) is the main cause of late morbidity and mortality in lung transplantation. Studies on CLAD in cadaveric lung transplantation have been extensively reported, but few reports have been reported concerning CLAD after LDLLT. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, characteristics and prognosis of CLAD after LDLLT. METHODS: Among 38 patients who survived more than 3 months after LDLLT at Kyoto University Hospital between June 2008 and December 2013, 8 patients (21%) were diagnosed with CLAD. The mean follow-up period after LDLLT was 33 months. Clinical course, pulmonary function and radiological findings were reviewed retrospectively in all the 38 patients as of May 2014. RESULTS: Six patients were female and 2 were male. The median age at LDLLT was 31 years, and the median interval between LDLLT and the initial diagnosis of CLAD was 23 months. Among 8 patients who developed CLAD, 2 patients underwent right single LDLLT and 6 patients underwent bilateral LDLLT. The former 2 patients survived 44 and 47 months after the treatment. Five out of 6 patients with bilateral LDLLT developed unilateral CLAD at the time of initial diagnosis according to ventilation scintigraphy. In 3 of these 5 patients, the progression of CLAD was halted by treatment, and the median follow-up period of 33 months after treatment. In the remaining 2 of 5 patients, CLAD progressed to the contralateral lung metachronously; 1 patient survived without oxygen supplement, but the other patient required reperformance of LDLLT 3 years after the first one. One patient with bilateral CLAD at the time of detection died of disease progression 4 years after LDLLT. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a relatively short observation time, CLAD developed in approximately one-fifth of the patients who survived more than 3 months after LDLLT. In bilateral LDLLT, CLAD developed unilaterally in most cases, which might be beneficial in the long term because the unaffected contralateral lung may function as a reservoir.