Lived Experience of Lung Transplantation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Lung Transplantation in the Twenty First Century: The lived experience of patients who received transplanted lungs between 1985 and 2000.
IRAS ID
288853
Contact name
Paula Rogers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Northampton
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Lung transplantation is an established treatment for patients with end-stage lung disease (Langer, 2015). During the last two decades, considerable advances in organ preservation, surgical techniques, immunosuppression and anti-biotic therapy have contributed to an improvement in post-operative survival. Adults who received a lung transplant in the era from January 1990 to June 2012 (n = 41,767), had a median survival of 5.7 years (Yusen et al, 2014). Overall survival from 2012 to 2016 has increased to a median survival of eight years, conditional on surviving the first-year post transplant surgery (Yusen et al, 2016).
One of the main determinants of lung transplantation outcome is the underlying disease, with a median survival of 8.9 years for cystic fibrosis patients, 6.7 years for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, 5.6 years for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease without alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, 4.8 years for patients with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia and 2.8 years for re-transplantation (Thabut and Mal, 2017). The main focus of post-operative management is to develop care pathways which improve exercise capacity, independent functioning and increase quality of life (Myaskovsky et al, 2006; Smeritschnig et al, 2005; Gerbase et al, 2008).
A recent review undertaken within a tertiary centre for cardiothoracic care has evaluated the totality of lung transplantation since the programme began in 1983. There are seventy patients who have survived a lung transplant for twenty years or more and there are signs that this lung transplant population may have additional care needs compared to a younger, less complex population of lung transplant patients.
Having raised the profile of this patient group with a lung transplant, this has strengthened the author’s desire, who is a nurse working within the Centre, to understand more about the implications of living with a transplanted lung for more than twenty years Therefore, the aim of this proposed study is to explore the lived experience of patients who have survived a lung transplant for at least twenty years.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
20/WA/0331
Date of REC Opinion
2 Dec 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion