Current opinion in organ transplantation
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Curr Opin Organ Transplant · Jun 2016
ReviewExtracorporeal lung perfusion (ex-vivo lung perfusion).
The number of patients listed for lung transplantation largely exceeds the number of available transplantable organs because of both a shortage of organ donors and a low utilization rate of lungs from those donors. A novel strategy of donor lung management, ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP), that keeps the organ at physiological protective conditions has shown great promise to increase lung utilization by re-evaluating, treating, and repairing donor lungs prior to transplantation. ⋯ Development of an ex-vivo treatment arsenal ranging in complexity from pharmacologic to gene and cellular therapies will soon allow clinicians to utilize the full potential of the donor organ pool improving outcomes of lung transplantation.