DISCUSSION
This retrospective study has demonstrated that satisfactory outcome of lung transplantation can be achieved with the use of lungs from marginal donors. None of the parameters used in this study to evaluate early and late recipient outcome showed any significant difference between the groups. There were, however, discernible differences between the two groups. First, cardiopulmonary bypass appeared to be necessary to facilitate second graft implantation in BSLT more often in the marginal donor group than in the ideal donor group, although the difference between groups did not achieve statistical significance. The need for bypass was invariably based on unsatisfactory oxygenation or hemodynamics, or both (i.e., unacceptably elevated pulmonary artery pressure) after pulmonary artery clamping during excision of the second native lung. Second, our subjective impression is that the early postoperative recipient chest radiographs in the marginal donor group often demonstrated worsening of any preexisting infiltrate or contusion before resolution of these changes, which was usually discernible within about 72 hours. These findings are all compatible with a tolerable degree of reversible donor lung dysfunction, manifested mainly as reperfusion-related pulmonary edema. Nonetheless, these phenomena observed in the marginal donor group did not have any effect on the objective parameters used in this study and hence did not have an adverse impact on the early or late results for those recipients.