Pediatric lung transplantation for graft-versus-host disease following bone marrow transplantation

Nine years after receiving a bone marrow transplant for aplastic anemia, a 14-year-old girl with severe pulmonary disease associated with graft-versus-host disease received a double lung transplant. Subsequent to lung transplant, her lung function improved dramatically (FEV1 increasing from 20 to 73 percent predicted normal, residual volume decreasing from 316 to 130 percent predicted normal values). The patient is currently well 15 months after transplant, while receiving immunosuppression consisting of FK506 and azathioprine. Double lung transplantation may offer a therapeutic option for the treatment of graft-versus-host pulmonary disease in selected patients.