Researchers have found that bigger lungs are better in transplants as they account for relatively better survival rates after surgery, mainly in patients receiving a double-lung transplant.
Lung transplant is often considered as a possible solution to advanced lung disease. Lung Cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a new study, researchers have found that bigger lungs used in transplants account for better life expectancy after surgery. Michael Eberlein, clinical assistant professor in internal medicine at the UI, and colleagues used a new method to calculate the size of the length to match with the right patients to increase survival rates.
Every year, nearly 200,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with the disease and over 150,000 die from lung cancer. One in every six deaths in the U.S. is caused due to lung cancer, but the organ donation rate remains relatively low. Several programs were started by the government to prevent or control the disease.
Doctors have long wondered how the size of the donor lungs is related to the transplant success. It is believed that oversized lungs are often problematic during transplants but no substantial data is available to prove it, according to Eberlein. The new study has answered the unresolved question by using a new formula called "predicted total lung capacity ratio," (pLTC ratio) which can be used to identify a perfect match based on the size of the lung.
The pLTC ratio is calculated by the height and gender. Taller people have bigger lungs and male lungs are bigger than female's of similar height. Researchers said that dividing the pLTC ratio of the donor with the patient's pLTC, gives the matching ratio. Researchers found that ratio of 1.0 is a perfect match, while a ratio of 1.3 means donor's lung is larger than the patient's lung.
"This study shows that lung size matters in lung-transplant procedures," Eberlein, lead author of the study, said in a statement. "We found that oversized allografts, up to a point, were associated with improved survival after lung transplantation. We would hope that recipients, within surgically feasible limits, could be listed for higher donor height ranges and ultimately have a better chance of receiving an acceptable donor lung."
According to the study, for every 0.1 increase in the pLTC ratio, bilateral lung transplant recipients' risk of death a year after surgery was reduced by 7 percent and reduction of 6 percent death risk was found in patients getting a single lung transplant.
The findings of the study are published in the journal The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
