Open AccessPresurgical pulmonary evaluation in renal transplant patients
Author(s) -
Sonu Sahni,
Ernesto P. Molmenti,
Madhu Bhaskaran,
Nicole Ali,
Amit Basu,
Arunabh Talwar
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
north american journal of medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2250-1541
pISSN - 1947-2714
DOI - 10.4103/1947-2714.147974
Subject(s) - medicine , renal transplant , lung , intensive care medicine , transplantation , chronic renal failure , pulmonary hypertension , renal replacement therapy , surgery
Patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) due to various mechanisms are prone to significant pulmonary comorbidities. With the improvements in renal replacement therapy (RRT), patients with CRF are now expected to live longer, and thus may develop complications in the lung from these processes. The preferred treatment of CRF is kidney transplantation and patients who are selected to undergo transplant must have a thorough preoperative pulmonary evaluation to assess pulmonary status and to determine risk of postoperative pulmonary complications. A MEDLINE(®)/PubMed(®) search was performed to identify all articles outlining the course of pre-surgical pulmonary evaluation with an emphasis on patients with CRF who have been selected for renal transplant. Literature review concluded that in addition to generic pre-surgical evaluation, renal transplant patients must also undergo a full cardiopulmonary and sleep evaluation to investigate possible existing pulmonary pathologies. Presence of any risk factor should then be aggressively managed or treated prior to surgery.