ISHLT Consensus Statement on the Referral and Selection of Pediatric Lung Transplant Candidates

Published 8 October 2025

Don Hayes Jr., MD, MS, MEd, MBA; Nicholas Avdimiretz, MD, FRCPC; Rossa Brugha, BMBCh, PhD; Mary Mullen, MD; Miranda Paraskeva, MBBS, MPH; Levent Midyat, MD; Melinda Solomon, MD; Stuart Sweet, MD, PhD; Ernestina Melicoff-Portillo, MD; Lara Danziger-Isakov, MD, MPH; Katsuhide Maeda, MD, PhD; David Morales, MD; Carol Conrad, MD; Nicolaus Schwerk, MD; Paul Aurora, MBBS, MRCP, PhD; Paul Crister, MD, PhD; Fabienne Dobbels, PhD; Melissa Sanchez, BScHons, PGDip, MSc, DClinPsy; Brigitte Willemse, MD, PhD, Stephen Kirkby, MD; Kimberly Miles, MD; Rolf Berrger, MD, PhD; Frank Rahaghi, MD; Nagarajan Muthialu, MBBS; Christian Benden, MD, MBA, FCCP, FERS

J Heart Lung Transplant. October 2025.

• Advanced Lung Failure & Transplantation
• Consensus Document
• Pediatrics
• Publications & Journals
• Standards & Guidelines

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. To address these challenges, 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 on the referral criteria and selection of pediatric lung transplant (LTx) candidates.

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.

Read at JHLT