Listing for Transplant
Once the transplant team agrees that the patient is a suitable transplant candidate, the team will place the candidate’s name on a waiting list for a donor lung. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is the national agency that regulates organ transplantation. LifeLink of Georgia facilitates organ donation for the state of Georgia . UNOS, along with LifeLink of Georgia, put the candidate’s name on a national computerized transplant waiting list and helps locate donor organs. You may access information on UNOS via the Internet at www.unos.org.
Due to a critical shortage of donor organs, adults can wait up to two years or more before a suitable donor lung is available. Often patients can wait at home during this time.
While candidates are “waiting,” they will continue follow-up care with their referring physicians. However, it is important that we are always aware of any illnesses that occur, so please help make sure the candidate’s transplant coordinator is informed of any illness by faxing us the office notes of all the patient’s visits.
Status On The List
A candidate will be listed as an active status patient on the lung transplant waiting list. When an organ becomes available, the candidate with the greatest number of cumulative days spent waiting and with the proper blood group and body size will receive the donor lung.
The longer the candidate is on the list, the more “points” (days on list) they accumulate. Moving closer to the top of the list makes it more likely that they will be transplanted if a donor lung becomes available. This system will likely change in 2005 to one incorporating mortalities while waiting vs survival following transplant by disease category.
Finding a Donor
Every effort will be made to find a donor quickly. The wait for a donor depends on the candidate’s blood type and body size. To find a donor match, we look at two things:
- Candidate and donor must have compatible blood types.
- Candidate and donor must be height-compatible.
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