Case report: Paracorporeal lung assist device for 215 days as a bridge-to-lung transplantation in a patient with bronchopulmonary dysplasia and severe pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a known and life limiting complication of preterm born young adults with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), ultimately leading to progressive right ventricular (RV) failure. Prognosis remains poor, especially in patients unresponsive to modern vasoactive pharmacotherapy. Therefore, lung transplantation presents the treatment of choice to avert cardiac failure. With limited donor organ availability and long waiting times, the implantation of a paracorporeal lung assist device (PLAD) is a way to bridge the patient as an alternative to veno-arterial ECMO. Herein, we present the case of a prematurely born 23-year-old female, who developed severe PH due to BPD and consequently experienced therapy refractory RV failure. Urgent PLAD implantation was performed and the patient successfully underwent double-lung transplantation after 215 days of PLAD support. No major PLAD-associated complications occurred and full recovery of RV function could be observed after double-lung transplantation.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. SM and TV declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
(© 2023 Michel, Hanuna, Pattathu, Pabst von Ohain, Schneider, Kauke, Kneidinger, Behr, Milger, Barton, Veit, Kamla, Mueller, Dzieciol, Christen, Irlbeck, Tomasi, Abicht, Scheiermann, Feuerecker, Dalla-Pozza, Fischer, Jakob, Hermann, Haas, Hagl and Hörer.)