TY - JOUR
T1 - Urgent lung allocation system in the Scandiatransplant countries
AU - Auråen, Henrik
AU - Schultz, Hans Henrik L.
AU - Hämmäinen, Pekka
AU - Riise, Gerdt C.
AU - Larsson, Hillevi
AU - Hansson, Lennart
AU - Dellgren, Göran
AU - Perch, Michael
AU - Geiran, Odd
AU - Fiane, Arnt E.
AU - Iversen, Martin
AU - Holm, Are Martin
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - BACKGROUND: Throughout the world, the scarcity of donor organs makes optimal allocation systems necessary. In the Scandiatransplant countries, organs for lung transplantation are allocated nationally. To ensure shorter wait time for critically ill patients, the Scandiatransplant urgent lung allocation system (ScULAS) was introduced in 2009, giving supranational priority to patients considered urgent. There were no pre-defined criteria for listing a patient as urgent, but each center was granted only 3 urgent calls per year. This study aims to explore the characteristics and outcome of patients listed as urgent, assess changes associated with the implementation of ScULAS, and describe how the system was utilized by the member centers. METHODS: All patients listed for lung transplantation at the 5 Scandiatransplant centers 5 years before and after implementation of ScULAS were included. RESULTS: After implementation, 8.3% of all listed patients received urgent status, of whom 81% were transplanted within 4 weeks. Patients listed as urgent were younger, more commonly had suppurative lung disease, and were more often on life support compared with patients without urgent status. For patients listed as urgent, post-transplant graft survival was inferior at 30 and 90 days. Although there were no pre-defined criteria for urgent listing, the system was not utilized at its maximum. CONCLUSIONS: ScULAS rapidly allocated organs to patients considered urgent. These patients were younger and more often had suppurative lung disease. Patients with urgent status had inferior short-term outcome, plausibly due to the higher proportion on life support before transplantation.
AB - BACKGROUND: Throughout the world, the scarcity of donor organs makes optimal allocation systems necessary. In the Scandiatransplant countries, organs for lung transplantation are allocated nationally. To ensure shorter wait time for critically ill patients, the Scandiatransplant urgent lung allocation system (ScULAS) was introduced in 2009, giving supranational priority to patients considered urgent. There were no pre-defined criteria for listing a patient as urgent, but each center was granted only 3 urgent calls per year. This study aims to explore the characteristics and outcome of patients listed as urgent, assess changes associated with the implementation of ScULAS, and describe how the system was utilized by the member centers. METHODS: All patients listed for lung transplantation at the 5 Scandiatransplant centers 5 years before and after implementation of ScULAS were included. RESULTS: After implementation, 8.3% of all listed patients received urgent status, of whom 81% were transplanted within 4 weeks. Patients listed as urgent were younger, more commonly had suppurative lung disease, and were more often on life support compared with patients without urgent status. For patients listed as urgent, post-transplant graft survival was inferior at 30 and 90 days. Although there were no pre-defined criteria for urgent listing, the system was not utilized at its maximum. CONCLUSIONS: ScULAS rapidly allocated organs to patients considered urgent. These patients were younger and more often had suppurative lung disease. Patients with urgent status had inferior short-term outcome, plausibly due to the higher proportion on life support before transplantation.
KW - allocation
KW - lung
KW - scandiatransplant
KW - transplantation
KW - urgency
U2 - 10.1016/j.healun.2018.08.002
DO - 10.1016/j.healun.2018.08.002
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30241891
AN - SCOPUS:85053727736
SN - 1053-2498
VL - 37
SP - 1403
EP - 1409
JO - Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation
JF - Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation
IS - 12
ER -