Heart-Lung transplantation: Meeting allocation challenges in France

Our study aims to describe the French heart-lung graft allocation system, to compare it with allocation systems used in other countries, and to explore potential solutions to improve access to this rare transplantation procedure.

Our study integrates published literature and multidisciplinary expert opinions to examine heart-lung graft allocation in France.

The heart-lung transplantation (HLTx) programme was initiated in France in 1987. The number of procedures then increased steadily until the 2010s. Improved knowledge on right ventricular function recovery after double lung transplantation (LTx) for pulmonary hypertension combined with the organ shortage then led to a sharp drop in the number of HLTx recipients worldwide. In France, the number of HLTx procedures is only about ten per year and the main indication is Eisenmenger syndrome. Most HLTx candidates in France receive grafts only if they are in the high-urgency category highlighting the difficulty of access to heart-lung transplants. A re-appraisal of graft allocation rules thus seems mandatory to allow graft access to patients who do not meet high-urgency criteria and whose better general health predicts better post-HLTx outcomes.

As HLTx candidates in France are placed on the heart-transplant list in competition with heart-only transplant candidate, one option would be to reconsider the heart score assigned to HLTx candidates upon listing.