Reducing ischemia-reperfusion injury in clinical lung transplantation

Acute graft dysfunction secondary to ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) continues to be the most common cause of early mortality after lung transplantation. The perioperative management with aprotinin could decrease the incidence of severe IRI.

A retrospective analysis was conducted of the data from 180 patients who underwent either single lung (56%) or bilateral sequential lung transplantation for similar end-stage lung disease between 1997 and 2005. The most recent 68 patients were managed perioperatively with the high-dose aprotinin infusion regimen (aprotinin group). The ISHLT grade III injury score was used for the diagnosis of severe IRI, which is based on a Pao(2)-FIo(2) ratio of less than 200 mmHg.

Grade III injury was observed in 18% of the patients who were not managed with aprotinin (control group, 152 grafts, 64% single transplants, 68% male, 54 +/- 8 years of age). Early ECMO support was required in 25% of these patients. The associated mortality rate was 40%. Despite significantly longer cold ischemic times (290 +/- 14 minutes vs 231 +/- 14 minutes), older donors (42 +/- 12 years of age), and more frequently observed severely elevated systolic PAP of greater than 60 mmHg (60% vs 48%) as well as more frequently required extracorporeal circulatory support (24%* vs 12%) in the aprotinin group, the incidence of severe IRI (8%) and associated mortality (9%) was markedly reduced.

The use of aprotinin in LTX surgery, which had strong beneficial effects on patient outcomes, significantly decreased the incidence of severe posttransplant IRI.