Influencing factors for postoperative survival of patients with stage III silicosis treated by lung transplantation

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the clinical effect, postoperative complications, and causes of death in the treatment of stage III silicosis with lung transplantation and the influencing factors for survival. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of 32 patients with stage III silicosis who underwent lung transplantation in our hospital from September 2002 to September 2015. The survival, causes of death, and postoperative complications were analyzed. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to plot survival curves, the log-rank test was used to compare the influence of each factor on survival rates, and the multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the influence of each factor on survival. Results: All the patients underwent successful lung transplantation. The 3-month and 1-, 3-, and 5-year postoperative cumulative survival rates were 90.6%, 80.8%, 76.7%, and 76.7%, respectively. Eight patients died during the postoperative follow-up, among whom 1 died of multiple organ failure, 3 died of severe infection, 2 died of sudden cardiac death, 1 died of renal failure, and 1 died of bronchiolitis obliterans. The major postoperative complications included primary graft dysfunction (PGD) in 10 patients, severe infection in 7 patients, acute rejection reaction in 3 patients, bronchiolitis obliterans in 5 patients, bleeding in 5 patients, anastomotic complication in 2 patients, and renal dysfunction in 3 patients. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that sex, postoperative PGD, postoperative infection, massive intraoperative blood loss, preoperative pulmonary arterial hypertension were influencing factors for postoperative survival rates (P<0.05). The multivariate Cox regression model showed that male sex was the protective factor (P<0.05) and postoperative PGD and massive intraoperative blood loss were independent risk factors for death after transplantation (P<0.05). Conclusion: Lung transplantation is a method for the treatment of silicosis. Postoperative PGD and massive intraoperative blood loss are independent risk factors for death after transplantation. Survival rates are affected by postoperative PGD, infection, massive intraoperative blood loss, and preoperative pulmonary arterial hypertension.