Single Lung Transplantation in Patients With Systemic Disease

Objective

To report functional results and survival in patients undergoing single lung transplantation (SLT) for pulmonary involvement associated with systemic disease or prior malignancy, criteria traditionally considered contraindications to SLT.

Design

Case series.

Setting

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Patients

Nine patients who have undergone SLT for end-stage lung disease: four patients with sarcoidosis; two patients with limited scleroderma; and three patients with prior malignancies (two with prior lymphoma and bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis and one who received two bone marrow transplants for acute lymphocytic leukemia and subsequently developed chemotherapy-induced pulmonary fibrosis).

Measurements

Pulmonary function testing, exercise oximetry, quantitative ventilation-perfusion lung scanning. Actuarial survival.

Results

All patients had marked improvement in pulmonary function, exercise oximetry, and quantitative ventilation perfusion to the SLT. One patient with scleroderma died 90 days postoperatively from Pseudomonas pneumonia with a sepsis syndrome. One patient with sarcoidosis died 150 days postoperatively from disseminated aspergillosis. At autopsy, there was no evidence of recurrent fibrosis or sarcoidosis in the transplanted lungs in either of these two patients. The seven surviving patients have returned to work or school and are conducting all activities of daily living without pulmonary disability. The 1- and 2-year actuarial survival rates in these nine patients is 68.6 percent as compared with the 1- and 2-year actuarial survival rates of 66.3 percent and 55.8 percent in the remainder of our SLT group as a whole (n = 49). Despite pharmacologic immunosuppression, there is no evidence of recurrent malignancy in the 3 patients with prior malignancies.

Conclusions

We conclude that carefully selected patients with end-stage lung involvement related to systemic disease or chemotherapy-induced fibrosis may benefit from SLT.