Original articleGeneral thoracicIs There an Age Limit to Lung Transplantation?
Section snippets
Patient Population
Before this study was initiated, written approval with waiver of informed consent was obtained from the Institutional Review Board for Human Research at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The Standard Transplant Analysis and Research Dataset for lung transplant recipients was obtained from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) for patients who underwent lung transplantation between May 2005 and December 2012. Data for 11,778 lung transplants were retrospectively
Results
Of the 11,776 patients reviewed (mean age, 53.6 ± 14.1 years), 9,317 (79%) were between the ages of 12 and 64, 1902 (16%) were 65 to 69, 486 (4%) were 70 to 74, and 71 (1%) were 75 to 79 (Fig 1). Table 1 reports recipient demographics across age groups. The four age groups were significantly dissimilar in all patient characteristics, including sex distribution, disease diagnostic group, LAS, mPAP, and procedure type (SLT vs BLT). The proportion of male recipients increased significantly by age
Comment
Longer life expectancy has led to a shift in the age structure of our population, and many elderly people suffer from end-stage lung disease. However, current guidelines state that age older than 65 is a relative contraindication to lung transplantation [1]. Nonetheless, lung transplantation is more frequently being offered to patients aged 65 and older 2, 3. The limited supply of donor lungs and the increase in lung transplantation in older patients have made it critical to reevaluate which
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