The following is a summary of “Thoracic retransplantation: Does time to retransplantation matter?,” published in the December 2023 issue of the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery by Ganapathi, et al.

Retransplantation is the best way to treat prolonged allograft failure in some people. For a study, researchers sought to find out if the time it takes to get a heart or lung transplant affected the short- and long-term results for people who have had a transplant in the past year or more.

To find all first-time heart and lung retransplantations in adults between June 1, 2006, and September 30, 2020, the United Network for Organ Sharing/Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network STAR file was searched. The time between the first and last retransplantation was at least one year. Patients were put into three groups based on how long it had been since their last transplant: tertile 1 had been waiting 1.7 years, tertile 2 had been waiting 7.7–14.7+ years, and tertile 3 had been waiting 14.7 years or more; tertile 1 had been waiting 1.8 years, tertile 2 had been waiting 5.6+ years, and tertile 3 had been waiting 5.6 years or more for a lung transplant. 

The main result was life after a second donation. Comparative statistics were used to find changes between groups, and Kaplan–Meier and a Cox proportional hazard model were used to look at how long people lived. After picking the best ones, 908 heart retransplants and 871 lung retransplants were found. In people who had a heart retransplant, tertile 1 was linked to being male, smoking, having a higher listing status, and needing more medical help before the transplant. The most simultaneous kidney transplants were in tertile 3. However, the rates of illness and death in the hospital were about the same across all groups. Both unadjusted and modified studies showed no change in survival between the groups. For people who had a lung retransplant, tertile 1 was linked to higher lung allocation scores, longer stays in the hospital before the transplant, and needing respiratory support. Survival rates were lower in Tertile 1 in both unadjusted and modified studies.

Heart patients with more than one year of retransplantation don’t seem affected by time to retransplantation. On the other hand, lung recipients with a shorter time to retransplantation are less likely to survive. People who might need a lung retransplant and have less than 2.8 years until their next transplant should be carefully examined before they get one.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002252232200527X