Lung Transplantation during COVID19 Pandemic: Latam Experience

PURPOSE: COVID19 pandemic posed new barriers to lung transplantation. A significant decrease in the number of donors and an increased infection risk to both patients and healthcare teams caused a decline in lung transplantation around the world. We aimed to describe lung transplantation activity in lung transplant centers in Latin America, as the first collaborative study of its kind. METHODS: We designed a cross sectional study. Lung transplant centers in Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay were reached out by one of the authors (AB). Data from february to october 2020 was collected regarding demographics, cause and type of transplantation, infectious complications due to SARS-COV2 and survival RESULTS: Sixteen lung transplant centers send their data. 64 lung transplants were performed during the study period. Thirty two (50%) lung transplants were performed in women. Median age was 41±19 years. Cause of transplantation were idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 13 (20%), COPD 9 (14%), cystic fibrosis 13 (20%), pulmonary hypertension 5 (8%), other causes of transplantation 24 (38%), including 3 cases of post covid fibrosis. Bilateral lung transplantation was performed in 53 (82%) patients. Overall mortality was 18% (n=12). No cases of post transplant COVID19 were reported. All patients discharged from hospital were alive after a mean follow up of 90 days. CONCLUSION: A small but significant number of lung transplants were performed with excellent survival rate. Three patients were transplanted because of covid19 related fibrosis. The majority of cases reported were safely performed during the period when the Latin American region was considered the global epicenter of the pandemic. Although this manuscript has potential bias due to its retrospective nature, we believe that data presented here denote increasing maturity in procurement and transplantation activities of Latin America.