Results of Lung Transplantation in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the results and survival rates of patients who underwent lung transplantation (LT) to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methodology We performed a retrospective analysis of 63 patients with COPD who underwent LT between 1996 and 2007. Our statistical analysis was based on descriptive statistics and survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test). Results Sixty-three LTs were performed in 53 male and 10 female patients with COPD. Twenty-eight LTs were unipulmonary and 35 were bipulmonary. Four cases required extracorporeal circulation. Surgical complications arose in 18 cases. There were 3 cases of intraoperative death as a result of cardiac failure. The most frequent long-term complications were hypertension (39.7%), renal failure (42.9%), and neoplasms (20.6%). Overall survival times (mean, 2553 days) were 75.9%, 74.15%, 65.67%, 55.87%, and 42.05% at 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. No differences were observed in survival according to the following: donor age >30 years ( P = 8), type of transplantation (unilateral vs bilateral; P = .57), donor intubation time >48 hours ( P = .2), or donor oxygenation index