Lung procurement from a donor on ECMO support

Abstract

We report the case of a 50-year-old man with congestive heart failure who became a candidate for organ donation after anoxic brain injury after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) who was on a venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. On visualization, the donor's lung was acceptable for lung transplantation to a 68-year-old male patient with a chronic history of pulmonary fibrosis. Right single-lung implantation was successfully performed in the recipient. Herein, we report a case that highlights our institution's result suggesting that the use of a lung previously on ECMO support can safely and potentially expand the donor lung pool in carefully selected patients.