Double-lung transplantation in mechanically ventilated patients with cystic fibrosis

Many lung transplant programs consider ventilator dependence as a contraindication for transplantation. Among 54 patients in whom bilateral lung transplantations for cystic fibrosis were performed by the Joint Marseille-Montreal Lung Transplant Program, 10 were ventilator dependent. Three of them died in the early postoperative period (30%): 2 as a result of cerebral anoxia and sepsis, 1 of Pseudomonas cepacia pneumonia. Two patients died at 15 and 19 months after transplantation of obliterative bronchiolitis and secondary bacterial pneumonitis. Another 2 patients in whom obliterative bronchiolitis developed underwent retransplantation with a heart-lung block; 1 of those was operated on at 12 months and is well at 29 months after his initial transplantation; the second was operated on at 34 months and died of primary graft failure. Three other patients are alive and well at 3, 11, and 14 months after transplantation. Actuarial survival at 1 year was 70%. The postoperative course and the infectious and rejection complications were no different from those in patients who underwent transplantation while spontaneously breathing. Obliterative bronchiolitis developed in 66% of patients at risk (2 of 6 patients surviving more than 6 months). We conclude that transplantation in mechanically ventilated patients with cystic fibrosis is not associated with an increase in morbidity or mortality after bilateral lung transplantation. Long-term survival, as in patients who undergo transplantation while spontaneously breathing, is limited by the development of obliterative bronchiolitis.