Prophylaxis and treatment against infectious complication after lung transplantation

Abstract

The lung is an organ that tends to cause infectious problems even in healthy people because it is directly surfaced to the outside environment containing variety of infectious organisms. The most frequent cause of death within a year after lung transplantation is fatal infectious complications, which shifts to chronic allograft rejection or chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) thereafter. There is no doubt that minimization of the immunosuppression dose within the acceptable therapeutic range is the best strategy to avoid infectious complications; however, an adequate dose of an immunosuppressant is mandatory to protect lung allografts from acute or chronic rejection. Carefully balanced therapy of immunosuppression and infection control is extremely important for a patient’s long term survival after lung transplantation. In this article, our protocol for prevention of infection and treatment at onset is introduced and discussed with the presentation of typical cases.