Successful preservation and transplant of warm ischaemic lungs from controlled donors after circulatory death by prolonged in situ ventilation during normothermic regional perfusion of abdominal organs

Abstract OBJECTIVES Donation after circulatory death (DCD) potentially provides transplantable lungs suitable for a transplant, but in Italy, the need for 20 min of a no-touch period after cardiac arrest for legal declaration of death poses real challenges to organ preservation. METHODS This is a single-institution, retrospective study using data collected prospectively between October and December 2017. After the approval of the multidisciplinary DCD study group of Regione Lombardia, Maastricht category III DCD donors became eligible for combined procurement of lungs and abdominal organs. Our group subsequently established a dedicated technical protocol. Our protocol consists of a non-rapid normothermic open-lung procurement process that takes place during abdominal normothermic regional perfusion, namely without pleural topical cooling before the start of pneumoplegia. After the lung is procured according to the technique described in the article, lung function is evaluated by ex vivo lung perfusion, which is run with the low-flow, open atrium, low haematocrit technique. RESULTS During the study, we managed 5 controlled DCDs. In 3 cases, the lungs were successfully transplanted. All 3 patients are alive after 1 year, with good respiratory function. CONCLUSIONS Our approach resulted in adequate lung preservation and successful transplants without detrimental effects on abdominal organ procurement, confirming the possibility of overcoming the obstacle of a long no-touch period in a DCD setting.

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Effect on the donor lungs of using abdominal normothermic regional perfusion in controlled donation after circulatory death

European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery ◽

10.1093/ejcts/ezaa398 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shin Tanaka ◽

Jose Luis Campo-Cañaveral de la Cruz ◽

Silvana Crowley Carrasco ◽

Alejandra Romero Román ◽

Lucas Hoyos Mejía ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lung Transplantation ◽

Organ Procurement ◽

Donation After Circulatory Death ◽

Primary Graft Dysfunction ◽

Abdominal Organ ◽

Graft Dysfunction ◽

Abdominal Organs ◽

Normothermic Regional Perfusion ◽

Transplantation Outcomes ◽

Circulatory Death

Abstract OBJECTIVES Controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) donors are becoming a common source of organs for transplantation globally. However, the graft survival rate of cDCD abdominal organs is inferior to that of organs from brain-dead donors. The rapid retrieval (RR) technique is used by most donor organ procurement teams. The abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (A-NRP) technique has been implemented to minimize warm ischaemic damage to the abdominal organs. However, there is limited information on the effect of A-NRP on the quality of the donor lungs. This study aimed to compare lung transplantation outcomes using lungs procured from cDCD donors using the A-NRP and abdominal RR techniques. METHODS A single-centre retrospective analysis of consecutive transplant recipients of cDCD lungs from June 2013 to December 2019 was performed. The recipients were divided into 2 cohorts according to the abdominal procurement technique used. The recipient and donor characteristics (age, sex, cause of brain injury, warm ischaemic time, diagnosis, lung allocation score and other factors), incidence of primary graft dysfunction and early survival were monitored. RESULTS Twenty-eight consecutive lung transplantation recipients were identified (median age 59 years; 61% male); 14 recipients received lungs using the A-NRP and 14 using abdominal RR for abdominal organ retrieval. There were no significant differences in the baseline characteristics, primary graft dysfunction (P = 0.70), hospital mortality (P = 1.0) and 1-year survival rate (P = 1.0) between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS No difference was observed in lung transplantation outcomes irrespective of the abdominal organ procurement technique used (A-NRP or abdominal RR).

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