Oto score and medium-term outcomes in lung transplantation

INTRODUCTION The aim of our study was to evaluate a possible relationship between the Lung Donor Score (LDS, Oto T., AnnThoracSurg 2007) assigned to the donor lung and the medium-term outcomes of the recipient. METHODS A retrospective study was conducted including all lung transplant (LTx) recipients from Jan2009 to Dec2014. Each donor lung was assigned a LDS, based on: donor age, smoke habit, chest X rays, respiratory secretions and P/F ratio; each variable received a score between 0 and 3, except for P/F, which was scored between 0 and 6; the higher, the worst. Clinical data were collected and analysed. RESULTS 94 patients were considered. LDS stratification is depicted in figure 1. Ouctomes and survival rates are shown in figure 2. LDS was significantly higher in the group of patients who died within the first 12 months after LTx [4 (3; 6) vs. 3 (1; 4), p = 0.010]; in particular, P/F ratio was significantly lower in this same group of patients (p=0.035). CONCLUSIONS Poor medium-term survival may be associated with worse LDS, especially in terms of P/F of the donor lung; reconditioning techniques might be helpful to improve pulmonary gas exchange in case of “marginal” lungs (LDS>8).