Objectives

Deceased lung donation requires optimum donor care, with lung viability greatly affected by the progress of the disease leading to brain death. In this study, we searched for causes of lung unsuitability for transplant in both primary and secondary evaluations.

Materials and methods

Primary lung evaluations included chest radiography, oxygen challenge test, and donor clinical and history examination. Secondary evaluations for lungs that passed the first step included fiberoptic bronchoscopy and donor-recipient matching.

Results

From 2012 to 2017, there were 1020 potential deceased organ donors in our center. Primary evaluations showed that the most prominent reason for lung donation unsuitability was low oxygen challenge result (n= 433, 42.5%). Other reasons were abnormal chest radiograph (n= 378, 38%), history of heavy smoking and inhaled drugs addiction (n= 112, 11%), prolonged intubation (n= 28, 2.7%), and lung disease history (n= 69, 6.7%). There were 104 (10.1%) potential donors to undergo fiberoptic bronchoscopy for further lung evaluation, with 47 (45.2%) selected for final lung donation. Five lungs (4.8%) with bronchoscopic confirmation for suitability were not retrieved due to lack of instruments and resources. Among the 57 (54.8%) rejected potential lung donations, the greatest factor impacting suitability was observation of purulent secretions in bronchoscopy (n= 24, 23%), evidence of aspiration (n= 10, 9.6%), infiltration (n= 7, 6.7%), and tracheitis.

Conclusions

The most common cause of lung rejection after primary evaluation is observation of purulent secretions in tracheobronchial tree. Therefore, implementation of appropriate strategies to prevent respiratory infection in the intensive care unit is needed to expand the lung donor pool.