Pre-Transplant Body Mass Index (BMI) is Associated with Survival after Bilateral Lung Transplantation

Purpose BMI outside of the range 16-30 kg/m2 is considered a relative contraindication to lung transplantation. We hypothesised that patients transplanted outside of this target range would have poorer graft survival compared to recipients within this range. Methods A single center retrospective analysis was performed of all first bilateral lung transplant (BLTx) recipients with available pre-transplant BMI data, between January 2000-October 2018. Graft survival was defined as time to death or re-transplantation. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated for recipients with a pre-transplant BMI > 30, and those with a BMI Results 671 patients underwent a first BLTx during the study period. 585 patients had a BMI at the time of transplant within the range of 16-30kg/m2. 52 patients had a BMI>30, and 34 had a BMI 30 groups there was a significant difference in native lung disease (ILD 21% vs 42%, p 30 and 3434 days for BMI 30 compared to BMI 16-30 (p=0.04) [figure 1A]. There was no significant difference in survival between patients with BMI Conclusion Patients with a pre-transplant BMI>30 had significantly shorter survival than those with target range BMI. Younger patients with BMI 30 should remain a relative contra-indication to lung transplantation but BMI