Ex-vivo lung perfusion as standard protocol

Perfusion of the lung after harvest was developed to assess the suitability of borderline organs, or those not fully assessed at the donor centre. In this randomised control trial Slama et al (J Heart Lung Transplant 2017;36:744–53) examine ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) versus standard transplant. 76 single sequential lung transplants at Medical University of Vienna between October 2013 and May 2015 were included. CIT (duration from aortic clamp to reperfusion within the recipient minus the duration of EVLP) was significantly longer in the EVLP group (first side, 372 min vs 291 min, p<0.001; second side 437 min vs 370 min; p=0.001). All transplants were done on arterio-venous ECMO; two patients in the EVLP group and five in the control group required prolonged ECMO. At 24 hours primary graft dysfunction (PGD) score was >1 for two patients in the EVLP group, and seven in the control group, which is lower than previously reported series. There were 3 deaths within 90 …