Posttransplant Complications and Comorbidities

Infectious complications cause significant acute morbidity and mortality after pediatric lung transplantation. With the lung graft in direct communication with the environment, it is susceptible to a variety of bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens. Appreciation for pretransplant risk factors in addition to perioperative and posttransplant exposures is necessary to anticipate, diagnose, and treat infections in this population. Further, epidemiologic associations between infection and chronic allograft dysfunction have been reported and suggest consequences of infectious events may have substantial impact.