Relationship between Donor/Recipient Lung Size Mismatch and Functional Outcome in Single Lung Transplantation for COPD

Single lung transplantation is an effective treatment for patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Pulmonary hyperinflation, which is seen in most patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, makes the task of appropriately matching the donor and recipient difficult. It seems that the optimal matching strategy remains undefined. No correlation between donor/recipient size match (actual and predicted) and the degree of functional improvement after single lung transplantation was found. There were no significant differences noted when comparing the functional outcomes of right and left lung transplant recipients. It was concluded that the chronic hyperinflation associated with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease allows for the use of significantly larger donors. The use of expanded donor/recipient size match criteria in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may shorten the waiting period prior to single lung transplantation and provide better utilization of donor organs.