A new finding from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center could influence the availability of donor lungs for transplantation.
After a review of 352 lung transplants at the medical center during the last decade, researchers found that lungs can safely be preserved beyond the 4 to 6 hours set out in current organ allocation policy. In a study presented last month at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons meeting in San Antonio, Tex, researchers examined transplantation results with donated lungs preserved for less than 4 hours, 4 to 6 hours, and more than 6 hours.
James S. Gammie, MD, a fellow in the medical center's Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, reported that 3-year survival was 68% in the 60 patients who received lungs stored longer than 6 hours. In fact, a patient who received lungs stored for nearly 9 hours is alive and well more than 6 years after transplant . . . [Full Text of this Article]
