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COVID in the Donor Organ: What’s the Risk?

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— In small sample, donors gave infection to lung recipients, yet not to other organ recipients

Three U.S. lung transplant recipients contracted COVID-19 from their new organs, including one patient who died and two patients who transmitted the virus to others, researchers found.

From March 2020 to March 2021, nine SARS-CoV-2 infected donors donated organs to 19 recipients. Three individuals who received bilateral lungs acquired infections from the donors but the remaining 16 recipients of extra-pulmonary organs did not, reported Rebecca Free, MD, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues.
Read more in MedPage Today.

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A glimpse into my journey: Lung transplantation for COVID-19

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Prior to November of 2020, if approached with the term ECMO or the words ventilator, tracheostomy, or lung transplant, I would have had a grossly rudimentary knowledge of most. Fast forward to January 2021, this would dramatically change as I would have an intimate understanding of what these were. In retrospect, this understanding comes with a high degree of respect for these tools and the people who use them to keep people alive. And that is exactly what they did for me.

In November of 2020, I contracted SARS-CoV-2, which resulted in my developing Covid-19. The disease ran unapologetically through my body. I had all the classic systems: sore throat, fever, body aches as I have never experienced and horrible fatigue. Realizing I was dealing with something worse than a common cold, I went to my primary care physician for a Covid test. I was instructed to isolate and rest as I waited for the results. After a day of having all these symptoms, I knew this test was going to be positive; and it was.
Read the full editorial in Wiley Online Library.

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‘Lungs In A Box’ Procedure Could Drastically Reduce Organ Waitlists: Doctors

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A unique lung transplant procedure has arrived at Northwestern Medicine in downtown Chicago

A unique procedure at Northwestern could cut down long waiting lists for those in need of a lung transplant.

Nicknamed “lungs in a box,” the ex-vivo lung perfusion procedure allows donated lungs to be examined for hours at a time on a machine – after being extracted from the body. The organs are then hooked up to a machine that simulates the breathing of a human body.
Read/watch the full story on NBC 5 Chicago here.

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Why enzymatic treatment may increase access to lung transplants

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Patients seeking lung transplants face a number of barriers, one of which is eligibility. Consider Ron Flewett, age 53, a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, whose case was described in an article published in Breathe. He knows he may not qualify for transplantation: He is sick, but he has to be sick enough to need the transplant—yet not so sick that he will cease to be eligible.

Physicians can play a role by encouraging their patients to abide by lung transplant eligibility guidelines to raise their chances of acquiring a new lung. Balancing the health timelines can be tricky, and socioeconomic factors can influence prognosis. Also affecting eligibility and outcomes is the issue of blood type compatibility with the donor. Read more.

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Likelihood of lung transplant in IPF linked to access, ZIP code income

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Regardless of disease severity and lung transplant eligibility, patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis who have access to a lung transplant center and live in more affluent areas have a higher probability of undergoing lung transplant.

“As clinicians and policymakers strive to ensure that eligible patients with IPF have equal opportunity to undergo a lung transplant, a better understanding of factors associated with lung transplant is needed,” Aparna Swaminathan, MD, assistant professor of medicine and member in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues wrote. Read more.

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Damaged Lungs Breathe Life into University of Kentucky COVID Research

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on the bottom of a sealed plastic container. It doesn’t look like much ­­– in fact, it doesn’t look like anything. But this little black lump has untold potential, full of secrets for the researchers at Kentucky Research Alliance for Lung Disease (K-RALD) to discover about the pandemic that has ravaged the world for more than two years.

This black lump is a sample of a lung from a COVID-19 patient. Specifically, it belonged to Dave Hoover, the first Kentuckian to receive a double lung transplant after contracting COVID-19. Hoover fell ill in February 2021, and after declining rapidly, he was transplanted two months later. He donated his lungs to researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, who added it to the K-RALD biobank of lung samples. Read more.

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Good Outcomes in COVID-19 Lung Transplants

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Patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome who received lung transplants had similar outcomes, compared to transplant patients without COVID-19, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA.

The findings demonstrate the viability of lung transplants in patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), according to Ankit Bharat, MBBS, the Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Research Professor of Surgery, chief of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery and senior author of the study. Read the full story.

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