Lee SH, et al. - This study was performed on patients who underwent lung transplantation at 1 tertiary hospital in South Korea. The goal was to analyze the perioperative factors associated with 1-year mortality post-lung transplantation. As per the inference drawn by the researchers, recipients with advanced age should be carefully selected and patients who need renal replacement therapy (RRT) or with increased delta neutrophil index (DNI) after transplantation should be managed accordingly.

Methods

• Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of 68 consecutive patients who underwent lung transplantation without preoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation treatment at 1 tertiary hospital in South Korea between October 24, 2012, and October 16, 2015.

Results

• Data showed that 44 patients (64.7%) lived for >1 year post-lung transplantation.
• Fifty- five years was the reported median age of all patients (range, 16–75 years), and men accounted for 57.4%.
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (48.5%) was documented as the major cause of lung transplantation; the other causes included interstitial lung disease related to connective tissue disease (17.6%) and bronchiolitis obliterans after stem cell transplantation (14.7%).
• Univariate analysis demonstrated that higher median age (52 vs. 61.5 years, P<0.001), male sex (45.5% vs. 79.2%, P=0.007), lower preoperative albumin level (<3 g/dL) (22.7% vs. 45.8%, P=0.049), need for renal replacement therapy (RRT) after surgery (4.5% vs. 37.5%, P=0.001), and postoperative delta neutrophil index (DNI) >5.5 higher than the preoperative DNI (22.7% vs. 70.8%, P<0.001) were significantly associated with 1-year mortality.
• In addition, after adjustments, old age, postoperative increased DNI, and need for RRT after transplantation were identified as the independent perioperative risk factors for 1-year mortality following lung transplantation.