New Method Allows Transplant Lungs to be Stored Longer

A thoracic surgeon at Toronto General Hospital, Dr. Marcelo Cypel, has authored an important new study for anyone needing a lung transplant. The study found that a new technique, called ex-vivo lung perfusion, or EVLP, allows transplant lungs to be stored for up to 12 hours. Previous conventional methods of lung storage only lasted between 6 and 8 hours, a restraint that often didn't leave time for transplanted lungs to be delivered to patients say the authors of the study. Cypel tracked 906 patients from 2006 to 2015 for the study, and found that patients who had received lungs that had been stored through EVLP performed just as well as those that had been stored in other methods. The study was published on November 17th in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.