Results of lung transplantation in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients

Lung transplantation (OLT) remains the only available therapy for patients with end-stage idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The objective of this study was to review our experience of OLT for end-stage IPF (IPFLT) patients, seeking to identify variables associated with survival for comparison with outcomes of other indications for LT (OILT). From October 1993 to December 2009, we performed 310 consecutive OLT in 301 patients for treatment of various end-stage pulmonary conditions. The indications for OLT were: IPF (n=89, 30.5%) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=82), cystic fibrosis (n=80), bronchiectasis (n=12), alfa-1-antitrypsin deficit (n=6), primary pulmonary hypertension (n=4), bronchiolitis obliterans (n=4), other conditions (n=15). We observed significant differences in the actuarial survival between the IPFLT and the OILT groups particularly at the expense of worse perioperative 30-day and early 1-year mortality in the IPFLT group. Upon univariate and multivariate analyses, the need for cardiopulmonary bypass, previous recipient ventilator dependence, and donor age>50 years were all associated with poorer survival rates among IPF patients. In our experience, survival did not differ between patients who underwent a single versus a bilateral sequential lung transplant (BSLT); however, BSLT cases were associated with short-term damage but long-term survival. The functional results in the IPFLT group were excellent. We observed significant improvements in the values of arterial oxygen pressure (PaO2), arterial carbon dioxide pressure (PaCO2), forced vital capacity (FVC%) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1%) at 6, 12, and 36 months compared to their pretransplant baseline results.