Pediatric lung transplantation

Abstract

Pediatric lung transplant is a viable option for treatment of end-stage lung disease in children, with > 100 pediatric lung transplants reported to the Registry of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation each year. Long-term success is limited by availability of donor organs, debilitation as a result of chronic disease, impaired mucus clearance resulting from both surgical and pharmacologic interventions, increased risk for infection resulting from immunosuppression, and most importantly late complications, such as chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Opportunities for investigation and innovation remain in all of these domains: (1) Ex vivo lung perfusion is a promising technology with the potential for increasing the lung donor pool, (2) evolving extracorporeal support strategies coupled with effective rehabilitation will effectively bridge critically ill patients to transplant, and most importantly, (3) research efforts intended to increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of chronic lung allograft dysfunction will ultimately lead to the development of effective therapies to prevent or treat the variety of chronic lung allograft dysfunction presentations.