Pulmonary Retransplantation for Obliterative Bronchiolitis

Despite increasing experience in the postoperative care of lung transplant recipients, obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) develops in up to 40% of patients in the intermediate term postoperatively[1],[2]. Although some patients with this condition respond to increased immunosuppression[1],[3], in many others chronic allograft dysfunction is resistant to therapy and ultimately causes death from progressive respiratory failure or opportunistic infection. Since 1988 an increasing number of lung transplant recipients with OB have been treated by retransplantation[4],[12]. The pulmonary retransplant registry was established in 1991 in order to document the results and determine the predictors of survival after pulmonary retransplantation[5],[11]. Recently, after increased patient accrual, the registry data were updated in order to document the determinants of outcome after retransplantation for OB.