Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 13, 2026
Lung Rapid Recovery Procurement Combined with Abdominal Normothermic Regional Perfusion in Controlled Donation after Circulatory Death
Published on: August 15, 2022
Modified reperfusion in clinical lung transplantation: the results of 100 consecutive cases
Gabriel T Schnickel1, David J Ross, Ramin Beygui
1Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif, USA. gschnick@ucla.edu
Objective:
Severe primary graft dysfunction occurs in 10% to 20% of lung transplant recipients and is the leading cause of early death after lung transplantation. We hypothesized that altering the content of the initial reperfusate and maintaining a low reperfusion pressure after surgical implantation would lead to a low incidence of primary graft dysfunction.
Methods:
We analyzed the records of all patients who underwent lung transplantation at our institution from March 1, 2000, to August 30, 2004. The modified reperfusion technique involved the insertion of a catheter into the main or individual pulmonary artery after implantation. The recipient blood was depleted of leukocytes; supplemented with nitroglycerin; adjusted for pH and calcium level; enriched with aspartate, glutamate, and dextrose; and then administered into the pulmonary arteries of the newly transplanted lung(s) for the first 10 minutes of reperfusion. Severe primary graft dysfunction was defined as a PaO2/inspired oxygen fraction of less than 150 with diffuse infiltrate on the radiograph in absence of other causes.
Results:
During this interval, 100 patients underwent lung transplantation with the modified reperfusion technique. Forty-two patients underwent single-lung transplantation, of which 5 patients required cardiopulmonary bypass for the procedure. Fifty-eight patients underwent double-lung transplantation; all double-lung transplantation procedures were performed with patients on cardiopulmonary bypass. There were no technical complications associated with the modified reperfusion. The mean PaO2/inspired oxygen fraction at 6 hours in this cohort was 252 +/- 123 mm Hg. The median number of days on the ventilator was 2. More importantly, the incidence of severe primary graft dysfunction in this cohort was 2.0%. The early survival (30-day or in-hospital mortality) of this group of patients was 97%.
Conclusions:
The technique of modified reperfusion in human lung transplantation is associated with a low incidence of severe primary graft dysfunction and favorable short-term outcomes.
