Info. about Lung Transplant at UPMC

Lung Transplantation Program

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is one of the oldest, most experienced centers in the world for lung and combined heart-lung transplantation. Since 1982, UPMC transplant specialists have performed more than 900 lung or heart-lung transplants, remaining one of the most active lung transplant centers in the world, and producing outcomes that exceed national standards.

According to new 2005 data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), UPMC is the largest lung transplant center in the United States, with survival rates well above the national average.

UPMC lung and heart-lung transplant specialists from the Heart, Lung, and Esophageal Surgery Institute care for people with life-threatening lung diseases, including pulmonary parenchymal or vascular disease that significantly limits life activities despite previous surgical and medical therapy. These specialists also carry out heart-lung-liver and other combined organ transplants including the lungs. Specific diseases treatable by transplantation therapy include:

brochiectasis, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, emphasema, eosinophilic granuloma, Goodpasture's syndrome, and pulmonary fibrosis.

UPMC's clinical experience and dedicated support resources allow its specialists to accept many patients as lung transplant candidates that other centers may decline. Coronary artery disease, Burkholderia infection in people with cystic fibrosis, advanced age, and scleroderma do not necessarily disqualify a person as a recipient. Few centers in the world can approach UPMC's experience with such difficult-to-transplant patients. Other UPMC capabilities include living-donor lung transplantation, extensive experience with heart-lung transplantation, and an antirejection-drug-weaning protocol that helps minimize doses and associated side effects from these lifesaving but powerful drugs.

An important facet of the lung transplant program at UPMC is its commitment to advancing the field of pulmonary transplantation. Active research programs include numerous clinical research protocols. An area of intense focus is in preconditioning regimens that may reduce the incidence of chronic rejection as well as the need for immunosuppressive medications, thus reducing the drugs' toxicity. UPMC's published and ongoing efforts in the use of aerosolized cyclosporine as an immunosuppressant may also contribute in this capacity.

UPMC lung transplant specialists have also taken steps to address some of the other major challenges facing lung transplantation today: the organ shortage, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and the damage organs suffer while they're in transit between donor and recipient. UPMC specialists are aggressive with "resuscitation" of donors, both in and out of the local organ procurement region, thus helping to expand the supply of donor organs. In addition, they are working on strategies and experimental approaches that may reduce ischemia-reperfusion injury and result in further improvements in outcomes.

Our Success

The program offers a unique combination of long-standing institutional commitment to transplantation, availability of investigational therapies, and comprehensive expertise for ancillary care — all which benefit patients.

UPMC specialists have made a concerted effort to reach the best outcomes in the world — an effort that is bearing fruit and contributed to UPMC's ranking among the top respiratory programs in U.S. News & World Report's annual surveys. In 2004, UPMC lung transplant patients' 30-day survival was 97 percent. This rate, as well as the program's one- and five-year survival statistics, compare quite favorably to national and international benchmarks despite the tendency to accept complex cases that would not qualify for transplantation elsewhere.

According to new data from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), UPMC is the largest lung transplant center in the United States, with survival rates well above the national average.

Survival Statistics

The Lung Transplantation Program's one- and five-year survival statistics compare quite favorably to national and international benchmarks despite providing care to an unusually large number of people whose complex cases would not qualify for transplantation elsewhere.
Outcomes are based on post-transplant survival. Each pair of percentiles compares UPMC outcomes with the national average of all transplant centers as tabulated by the United Network of Organ Sharing. Outcomes are computed using the Kaplan-Meier Method, a statistical technique that can produce transplant outcome statistics for a given year when data are incomplete.

Percent Survival:............UPMC...............N'tl Average

3 month..............................97%......................91%
1 year..................................88%......................83%
3 year..................................68%......................64%
5 year..................................52%......................49%
10 year................................31%......................24%

* UPMC data is for following years: 3 months and 1 year, 2003-2004; 3 years, 2001-2004; 5 years, 1999-2004; 10 years, 1993-2003.** National Average (UNOS) data is for the following years: 3 monthd and 1 year, 2002-2003; 3 years, 2000-2003; 5 years, 1998-2003; 10 years, 1993-2003.

Article from: http://www.upmc.com/Services/TransplantationServices/TypesofTransplants/Lung/