ACUTE, LIFE-THREATENING COMPLICATIONS OF LUNG TRANSPLANTATION

Acute, life-threatening complications of lung transplantation are comm on in all reported series. The clinical courses and images of 70 patie nts who underwent heart-lung (n = 5), bilateral sequential lung (n = 3 1), or single-lung (n = 38) transplantation were retrospectively revie wed. Sixty-five acute, life-threatening complications occurred in 26 p atients (37%) within 3 months after transplantation. Nine deaths occur red as a result of these complications for a mortality rate due to acu te complications of 13%. The deaths were a result of bleeding (n = 4), sepsis (n = 2), severe acute rejection and adult respiratory distress syndrome (n = 1), multiorgan failure (n = 1), and diffuse alveolar da mage and respiratory failure (n = 1), a distribution of causes similar to those in other reported series. Specific diagnoses that can be mad e with imaging include hemothorax, lung torsion, pneumomediastinum, pu lmonary embolism, pneumothorax, bronchial anastomotic dehiscence, lung collapse, paralysis of the diaphragm, and sternal dehiscence.