Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation After Lung Transplantation-A Single-Center Study

This single-center study examines the incidence, etiology, and outcomes associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV), defined as time to definite spontaneous ventilation >21 days after double lung transplantation (LTx). A total of 690 LTx recipients between January 2005 and December 2012 were analyzed. PMV was necessary in 95 (13.8%) patients with decreasing incidence during the observation period (p < 0.001). Independent predictors of PMV were renal replacement therapy (odds ratio [OR] 11.13 [95% CI, 5.82-21.29], p < 0.001), anastomotic dehiscence (OR 8.74 [95% CI 2.42-31.58], p = 0.001), autoimmune comorbidity (OR 5.52 [95% CI 1.86-16.41], p = 0.002), and postoperative neurologic complications (OR 5.03 [95% CI 1.98-12.81], p = 0.001), among others. Overall 1-year survival was 86.0% (90.4% for LTx between 2010 and 2012); it was 60.7% after PMV and 90.0% in controls (p < 0.001). Conditional long-term outcome among hospital survivors, however, did not differ between the groups (p = 0.78). Multivariate analysis identified renal replacement therapy (hazard ratio [HR] 3.55 [95% CI 2.40-5.25], p < 0.001), post-LTx extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (HR 3.47 [95% CI 2.06-5.83], p < 0.001), and prolonged inotropic support (HR 1.95 [95% CI 1.39-2.75], p < 0.001), among others, as independent predictors of mortality. In conclusion, PMV complicated 14% of LTx procedures and, although associated with increased in-hospital mortality, outcomes among patients surviving to hospital discharge were unaffected.