POST-OPERATIVE BRONCHIAL COMPLICATIONS FOLLOWING LUNG TRANSPLANTATION RELATED TO ANASTOMOSIS SUTURE.

BACKGROUND Post-operative bronchial anastomotic complications are not uncommon in lung transplant (LTx) recipients. We investigated two surgical techniques (continuous and interrupted sutures) during bronchial anastomosis, comparing survival and post-operative bronchial complications. METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 421 patients who were transplanted in our center (February-2012 to March-2018). Patients were divided according to bronchial anastomotic technique, continuous or interrupted. Demographics and clinical parameters were compared for significance (p<0.05). Comparison of post-operative morbidity included bronchial complications, Veno-Venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support and intervention requirements. Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier curve and log-rank tests (p<0.05). RESULTS Of the 421 patients, 290 underwent bronchial anastomoses with continuous suture; 44 patients had post-operative bronchial complications (15.2%). Contrarily, 131 patients underwent the interrupted suture technique; 9 patients had post-operative bronchial complications (6.9%). Demographics and clinical parameters included age, gender, ethnicity, etiology, lung allocation score, body mass index, donor age, LTx type, cardiopulmonary bypass usage, surgical approaches, and median length of stay. Post-operative complications (continuous vs. interrupted) were bronchial complications (p=0.017), Veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support (p=0.41), Veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support (p=0.38), and complications requiring dilatation with stent placement (p=0.09). Kaplan-Meier curve showed better survival in the interrupted group (p=0.0002). CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrated the comparable post-operative results between the continuous and interrupted technique.