Influence of donor gender in early outcome after lung transplantation

Introduction

In the current practice of lung transplantation (LT), donor and recipient genders are neither directly considered nor matched. However, donor female gender has been suggested as a significant risk factor for mortality in recipients after solid organ transplantation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the early mortality (30 days) in LT recipients according to the donor gender (male or female).

Methods

We analysed the potential effect of donor gender on early survival in all lung transplant recipients performed in our institution between January 1999 and December 2006. The curves of survival were calculated by the Kaplan–Meier method and the comparison among curves was made by the log-rank method.

Results

During the study period 153 LT procedures were performed in 150 patients. There was a total of 99 male donors and 54 female donors. The study groups were found to be homogeneous with regard to the major preoperative risk factors (etiology, status at transplantation, donor and recipient age, total ischemic time). The mean age of recipients was 54 ± 10 years (range 14–70). Indications included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 49%, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 40%, and other in 11%. The 30-day survival was 86% (95% CI, 77–91%) for recipients who received male donor lungs and 80% (95% CI, 66–88%) for recipients who received female donor lungs. No differences were observed between both curves of survival according to the log-rank test (P = 0.983). A Cox proportional hazards analysis for overall survival at 30 days showed a hazard ratio of 0.99 (95% CI, 0.63–1.58; P = 0.98) in recipients who received male donor lungs.

Conclusion

Even though previous reports suggest that gender negatively affects survival, this factor proved to have no influence on the early outcome of the present series.