An Analysis of Adherence to Vaccination Recommendations in a Thoracic Organ Transplant Cohort

(1) Background: Vaccination of solid organ transplant (SOT) candidates and recipients is vital to decrease infection-related morbidity and mortality. Here we describe our heart and lung transplant programs’ rates of completion of hepatitis B and pneumococcal vaccinations and identify potential opportunities for improvement. (2) Methods: This is a single-center retrospective study that included all heart and lung transplant recipients between 1 July 2013 and 31 July 2018. We assessed demographics, causes of organ failure, pretransplant hepatitis B immune status, and completion rates for hepatitis B vaccine series, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23). (3) Results: A total of 41 patients were included in the heart transplant cohort. Twelve (29.3%) had baseline hepatitis B immunity. Only 8/29 (27.6%) completed the entire 3-dose hepatitis B vaccination series pretransplant. Pretransplant PCV13 and PPSV23 vaccination rates were 58.5% (24/41) and 48.8% (20/41), respectively; no additional patients received PCV13 or PPSV23 post-transplant. In the heart transplant cohort, a majority (82.9%) of patients were evaluated by the Transplant Infectious Diseases consultative service (TxID) pretransplant, and this had a statistically significant association with increased pneumococcal vaccination rates (p = 0.0017, PCV13 and p = 0.0103, PPSV23). In total, 55 patients were included in the lung transplant cohort. Five (9.1%) had baseline hepatitis B immunity; 33/50 (66.0%) completed the hepatitis B vaccine series in the pretransplant setting. Pretransplant PCV13 and PPSV23 vaccination rate was 40.0% (22/55) and 69.1% (38/55), respectively. There was only a 47.3% and 72.3% completion rate overall in the post-transplant setting. (4) Conclusions: There continues to be a need for a comprehensive and coordinated effort to increase vaccine adherence for all SOT candidates in the pretransplant setting.