New ISHLT Document on Referral and Selection of Pediatric Lung Transplant Candidates
A new ISHLT Document, ISHLT Consensus Statement on the Referral and Selection of Pediatric Lung Transplant Candidates, has been published in JHLT and is available to read online.
Led by Don Hayes, MD, MS, MEd, Nicholas Avdimiretz, MD, FRCPC, Miranda Paraskeva, MBBS, MPH, Nagarajan Muthialu, and Christian Benden, MD, MBA, FCCP, FERS, this consensus document is meant to assist pediatric care providers throughout the world caring for children with advanced lung diseases to identify potential candidates for LTx, to optimize the timing of the referral of these patients to LTx centers, and to provide transplant centers with a framework for the evaluation and selection of children as candidates.
Children with advanced lung diseases are eligible to be considered as potential candidates for lung transplantation around the world. The timing of referral, evaluation, determination of candidacy, and listing of candidates poses challenges and ethical dilemmas for pediatric care providers. While previous ISHLT Consenus Documents have addressed the selection of lung transplant candidates, they have been primarily adult-focused and have provided limited pediatric-specific guidance on these key aspects of care. To address these challenges and gaps in literature, ISHLT appointed an international panel of expert members to review the literature, to consider recent advances in the management of advanced pediatric lung diseases, and to generate the first consensus guidelines entirely focused on the referral criteria and selection of pediatric lung transplant (LTx) candidates.
Visit the Standards & Guidelines page for details, top takeaways, and links to read or download the document.