Experiences with lung transplant waitlisting and (subsequent) post-transplant care at the Department of Respiratory Medicine in Olomouc
Abstract
Lung transplant is an established method in pulmonology and pulmonary surgery. In the Czech Republic, this field of medicine has progressively developed since 1997.
Lung transplants are performed at the 3rd Department of Surgery, University Hospital Motol in Prague. Candidates are selected at the hospital's Department of Pneumology.
Subsequently, patients are placed on a waiting list at an interdisciplinary meeting of the transplant team. With the increasing number of transplant patients, there has been a growing need to share their care with pulmonologists in Moravia.
Since 2016, lung transplant patients from Moravia and Silesia have been referred to a new center, the Department of Respiratory Medicine in the University Hospital Olomouc. The article describes the center's experiences with placing patients on the lung transplant waiting list and caring for them postope - ratively.
We summarize the current inclusion and exclusion criteria for waitlisting, the mean time spent on the waiting list and the surgery success rate. We also explain how health care is organized in the Olomouc post-transplant center.
Adequate and timely indication for lung transplant, high-quality transplant and post-transplant care, early diagnosis and management of complications go hand in hand with improving survival and reducing the severity of already existing complications.