Ex-vivo Lung Perfusion and Its Role in Experimental Studies

Abstract

Lung transplantation is an accepted treatment modality for end-stage lung diseases. However, the donor pool is not getting larger in comparison to the number of patients on the waiting list. Of the patients on the waiting list for lung transplant, more than a quarter dies while waiting. Utilization of marginal donors became an issue, and ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) was started to be performed to solve this problem. Besides that, success in lung transplantation has not reached a satisfactory level for various reasons including ischemia reperfusion injury. Treatment options against these reasons that cause low success of lung transplantations are being investigated by many centers. Nowadays, EVLP that was initially developed to re-evaluate marginal donors has become a method for studies in experimental models. In our article, we want to review EVLP models in experimental studies.