Clinical Outcomes of more than 500 Lung Transplants using Ex vivo Lung Perfusion: A Large-Volume, Single-Center Retrospective Analysis

To compare the outcomes of patients receiving lungs transplanted after undergoing ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) versus those transplanted conventionally at the Toronto General Hospital, Aadil Ali, PhD, and coauthors looked at 14 years of data from the Toronto Lung Transplant Database.

Patients were separated based on whether they received lungs that underwent EVLP or whether they were transplanted conventionally (controls). They were matched 1:1 based on medical diagnosis, recipient status, recipient sex, recipient age, BMI, donor age, and calendar year. The group found no differences in the incidence of Primary Graft Dysfunction (PGD) Grade 3 at 72h, post-transplant mechanical ventilation, post-transplant hospital length of stay, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, allograft survival analysis, and CLAD-Free survival analysis.

Dr. Ali and his associates report that “EVLP has been successfully incorporated in our program for more than a decade and is an effective method to expand the organ donor pool without compromising post-transplant outcomes.”

Dr. Ali will present the results of this study Sunday, May 7, at the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) 103rd Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.