Comparing the Incomparable: Identifying Common Themes Across a Diverse Landscape to Address Equity in Lung Allocation

Goldberg discusses the study by N.A. Kolaitis and colleagues on the common themes in organ allocation in the US. The authors compare the incidence of wait list mortality, rates of transplantation, and one-year post-transplantation survival in the pre- and postmodification eras for the overall study cohort as well as stratified by candidate disease type. They determine that patients with PAH experience the greatest increase in LAS and reduction in wait list mortality of all candidate cohorts in the amended system. However, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease still experience a lower risk of wait list death and patients with cystic fibrosis trend toward a lower risk of wait list death in the postmodification era compared with those with PAH, whereas the likelihood of transplantation remains higher for patients with cystic fibrosis and IPF than for those with PAH.