PROFESSIONRejected lungs found suitable for transplantIt may be time to reconsider the criteria.By Andis Robeznieks, amednews staff. Oct. 21, 2002. New research indicates that many lungs rejected for transplant may actually be suitable for use and that up to 1,000 lives each year could be saved by "liberalizing" transplant criteria. More than 85% of donor lungs are rejected for transplant, but a new study published in The Lancet provides evidence that many of these organs could have been used. Researchers found that 41% of 29 pairs of donated lungs examined and rejected by the California Transplant Donor Network would have been "potentially suitable" for transplantation. "This adds further emphasis for the need to re-evaluate transplant criteria," said senior report author Michael A. Matthay, MD, an internist from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. "I don't think that, on the basis of one observation like ours, everybody is going to change their criteria, but I think it will have serious impact because it will push the point further that there needs to be more studies on liberalizing the criteria." Dr. Matthay said this study complements a 1999 Australian study, in which researchers found that there was little difference in the survival rates between patients receiving so-called "ideal" lungs and those receiving "marginal" lungs. The problem, he said, is that lung transplant criteria have arbitrarily evolved without necessarily being founded on hard evidence.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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