Wait or No Wait for Reducing Body Weight before Lung Transplant

Purpose Lung transplant (LTx) candidates may have both high and low body-mass index (BMI). We investigated the effects of BMI in lung transplantation outcome and survival. Methods Patients from our center (Feb-2012 to Jul-2019) were divided into 5 BMI groups: Results Out of 609 LTx recipients, etiology was 63.1% IPF, 24.3% COPD, and 12.6% others. Furthermore, 28.2% of patients were either underweight or normal weight, 36.9% were overweight, and 34.7% were obese as measured by BMI. Demographically, the patient population was 66% male, mean age 64±9, race 78% white 15% black, and 7% others, median LOS (17 days) and mean LAS 49±19. Kaplan-Meier graph (figure 1) showed no significant differences in 1,3,5 year survival among all the BMI groups (p=0.57). There were also no significant differences among all the groups with regard to LOS (p=0.91) and LAS (p=0.42). Conclusion Despite larger numbers of overweight patients, there was no evidence of negative effect in survival outcome after LTx. Additionally, LOS and LAS did not have any effect in survival among five groups of BMI. This outcome suggests lung transplantation could be expanded to a wider variety of BMI patients.