Background: Lung transplantation has become a standard of care for a select group of patients with advanced lung diseases. Lung transplantation has undergone rapid growth in the last few years in Saudi Arabia.
Objective: Describe five years of experience with lung transplantation.
Design: Retrospective, descriptive.
Settings: Major tertiary care hospital.
Patients: All patients who underwent lung transplant surgery between 2010 to 2015.
Main outcome measures: Indications for lung transplant demographics, body mass index, blood group, type of transplant surgery, morbidity rate using the Clavien-Dindo classification, rate of early- and late-onset bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), bronchiolitis obliterans-free survival, 30- and 90-day mortality rate, and survival (30 days, 90 days, 1-year, 3-years and 5-years) for lung transplant recipients. The duration of mechanical ventilation, colonization by bacteria and need for lung volume reduction surgery for lung donors.
Sample size: 80, 45% women and 55% men.
Results: The most common indication for lung transplant in Saudi Arabia is pulmonary fibrosis (45%), followed by non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (25%) and cystic fibrosis-related bronchiectasis (20%). Only 45% of our lung transplant recipients had a normal BMI (18-28 kg/m2). The most frequent blood group was A (40%), followed by blood group O (32.5%). Most (85%) lung transplants were bilateral while 15% were single lung transplants. Postoperative complications developed in 64 patients, 34 (42.5%) had minor grade 1 complications, while 13 (16.5%) had severe complications leading to death (grade V). Early onset BOS developed in 6 (7.5%) patients while 16 (20%) had late onset BOS. The BOS-free survival rate was 72.5%. The mean duration of mechanical ventilation in lung donors was 9 days and most were infected by bacteria. The majority of recipients required lung volume reduction. The 30-day mortality rate was 12.5% and the 90-day mortality rate was 17.5%. Survival rates at our center were 87.5% at 30 days, 82.5% at 90 days, 81.2% at 1 year, 67.9% at 2 years and 62.1% at 5 years.
Conclusions: Lung transplantation has become an invaluable approach for the treatment of end-stage respiratory disease. Our 5-year experience has shown exciting promises for lung transplantation in Saudi Arabia.
Limitations: Retrospective design, single center experience.
Conflict of interest: None.