title: Presurgical pulmonary evaluation in renal transplant patients.
abstract: Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) due to various mechanisms are prone to significant pulmonary comorbidities. With the improvements in renal replacement therapy (RRT), patients with CRF are now expected to live longer, and thus may develop complications in the lung from these processes. The preferred treatment of CRF is kidney transplantation and patients who are selected to undergo transplant must have a thorough preoperative pulmonary evaluation to assess pulmonary status and to determine risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. A MEDLINE(®)/PubMed(®) search was performed to identify all articles outlining the course of pre-surgical pulmonary evaluation with an emphasis on patients with CRF who have been selected for renal transplant. Literature review concluded that in addition to generic pre-surgical evaluation, renal transplant patients must also undergo a full cardiopulmonary and sleep evaluation to investigate possible existing pulmonary pathologies. Presence of any risk factor should then be aggressively managed or treated prior to surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Sonu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahni
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplant Surgery, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Molmenti
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Madhu C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bhaskaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Transplant Surgery, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Arunabh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Talwar
keywords: Pre-surgical evaluation; Pulmonary complications; Pulmonary evaluation; Pulmonary hypertension; Renal transplant