Lung Transplantation from hepatitis C+ donor lungs: Reassuring midterm outcomes.

Background: The development of modern antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has allowed for the transplantation of HCV nucleic acid amplification testing-positive (NAT+) donor lungs with acceptable short-term outcomes. We sought to evaluate trends and midterm outcomes of lung transplant recipients of HCV NAT+ donor allografts.

Methods: All adults undergoing isolated lung transplantation in the United Network for Organ Sharing database from January 2016 to December 2022 were included in the study. Lung transplant recipients were stratified based on donor HCV status (HCV NAT+ vs NAT-). Propensity score matching was used to adjust for differences between groups. Several outcomes, including acute rejection by 1 year, early (30-day and in-hospital) mortality, and both 1- and 3-year survival, were compared between matched groups.

Results: A total of 16,725 patients underwent lung transplantation during the study period, with 489 (3%) receiving HCV NAT+ donor lungs. Regions 1 (18%) and 6/8 (both 0%) had the highest and lowest proportions, respectively, of HCV NAT+ donor transplants. Utilization of HCV NAT+ donors increased throughout the study period from 2 (0.1%) in 2016 to a peak of 117 (5%) in 2019. Donors who were HCV NAT+ were younger (34 vs 36 years, p < 0.001), more often female (44% vs 39%, p < 0.01), and more commonly died due to drug intoxication (56% vs 15%, p < 0.001). Recipients of HCV NAT+ donor lungs were similar in age (62 vs 62 years, p = 0.69) and female gender (43% vs 39%, p = 0.15) but had lower lung allocation scores (38 vs 41, p < 0.001) compared to others. Rates of acute rejection (13% vs 17%, p = 0.09), early mortality (30-day: 2% vs 1%, p = 0.59, in-hospital: 3% vs 4%, p = 0.38), as well as 1-year (90% vs 92%, p = 0.29) and 3-year survival (69% vs 75%, p = 0.13) were not significantly different between matched groups.

Conclusions: Lung transplant recipients of HCV NAT+ donor allografts experience similar rates of acute rejection, early mortality, and 3-year survival compared to all other lung recipients. Increased use of HCV NAT+ donor allografts may help to expand the donor pool and alleviate donor shortages.