A strategy to increase the donor pool: use of cadaver lungs for transplantation.
A shortage of suitable donors is a serious obstacle to the widespread application of isolated lung transplantation for end-stage lung disease. We hypothesized that lung tissue likely remains viable for a sufficient period of time to allow for safe postmortem retrieval of lungs for transplantation. Studies were conducted in a nonsurvival model of canine lung allotransplantation. Donor animals were sacrificed, and subsequent lung harvest was delayed for 1 hour, 2 hours, or 4 hours. Pulmonary retrieval was then performed in a standard fashion, flushing the lung block with modified Euro-Collins solution. Lungs were then stored for 4 hours before single allotransplantation. Recipient animals were maintained anesthetized, and followed up for 8 hours. By occlusion of the pulmonary artery and bronchus to the native lung, recipient animals were forced to survive solely on the transplanted lung, with a constant inspired oxygen fraction of 0.40. All 5 recipient animals of 1-hour cadaver lungs survived the 8-hour observation period with excellent hemodynamics and gas exchange. Two of 5 recipients of 2-hour cadaver lungs survived the observation period, whereas a third animal survived for 5 hours with excellent gas exchange. One of 4 animals transplanted with a 4-hour cadaver lung survived the observation period. Retrieval of lungs from cadavers whose hearts are not beating may prove to be a safe and effective method to increase the pulmonary donor pool.
Egan
T M
TM
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.
Lambert
C J
CJ
Reddick
R
R
Ulicny
K S
KS
Keagy
B A
BA
Wilcox
B R
BR
D000818:Animals; D002102:Cadaver; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004285:Dogs; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006982:Hypertonic Solutions; D016040:Lung Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology; D009926:Organ Preservation; D011659:Pulmonary Gas Exchange / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
C037096:Euro-Collins' solution; D006982:Hypertonic Solutions