Abstract
Between March, 1981, and August, 1985, twenty-eight heart-lung transplant operations were done in 27 patients at a single institution. 8 patients died in the perioperative period and adhesions related to previous thoracic surgery proved to be a major risk factor for postoperative haemorrhage. Obliterative bronchiolitis developed in half of the 20 long-term survivors, a mean of 11·2 months (range 2-35 months) after surgery: 4 of these patients died, 3 are functionally limited, 2 were successfully treated with corticosteroids, and the remaining patient was successfully retransplanted. The other 10 long-term survivors returned to a normal life with essentially normal pulmonary function measured at a mean of 22·6 months (range 4-42 months) after transplantation. All the surviving patients have evidence of renal impairment related to cyclosporin nephrotoxicity. The results indicate that, although heart-lung transplantation is compatible with essentially normal long-term pulmonary function, the procedure should not yet be regarded as a routine clinical intervention.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 517-519 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | The Lancet |
| Volume | 327 |
| Issue number | 8480 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 8 1986 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grant 13108 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
