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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 The rules for actual performance of a transplant have also changed, said Dr. Julian L. Allen, chief of the division of pulmonary medicine at the cystic fibrosis center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also co-author of an accompanying editorial in the journal.
Until 2005, all children awaiting a lung transplant were placed on a single list, receiving organs as they became available. Now, the decision to transplant includes consideration of the patient's condition, with sicker children getting the operation sooner, Allen said.
"In some cases, children who were put on intensive therapy were deferred, because they got better," he said. "There was something about the children in that group who didn't get transplanted that made them get better."
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The bottom line, Liou said, is that a decision that has always been complex has gotten even more so. "Maybe people will pay attention and try to be more careful about selecting patients for lung transplants," he said.
"You need to be careful about who you refer," Allen said. "You need to see if the results in this study hold true under the current rules. Also, the quality of life after a transplant has to be looked at. We need future studies that evaluate the quality of life."
One complicating factor with younger recipients of lung transplants is the need to be sure that they adhere to the strict regimen needed to prevent rejection of the organ, Allen added. The better success rate with older cystic fibrosis recipients is due partly to their better ability to follow instructions, he said.
More information
There's more on cystic fibrosis at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
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