Lung Transplant Information #2 - Listing

We have already reviewed the Evaluation process for a lung transplant. Again, the process is:

Evaluation

Listing

Waiting on the List

Being Called in for Transplant

Life after Transplant

Today, we will follow the listing process. The entire lung transplant team meets in a weekly selection meeting to discuss patient cases. After gathering all the information, it is now the time to determine if the patient is sick enough yet well enough to be a transplant receiver.

Once the person is approved to be listed, there needs to be an insurance authorization to cover the surgery itself, the time in the hospital and the extraordinary financial burden of the post-transplant drugs. When the patient is told that all is in order, their data is entered on the UNOS secure website. UNOS – United Network for Organ Sharing – which is the national overseer of all transplants of every organ.

At this time, the patient is given a Lung Allocation Score (LAS). This number is the way to determine who receives donor lungs based on medial testing completed during the evaluation process. The number is determined by UNOS at the time of the listing. The score is 0-100. 

UNOS takes into consideration the medical testing and other information like oxygen needed at rest, age, BMI, diabetes, functional status and diagnosis. So, what number do you want? Kind of hard to get a straight answer. Seems to be a lot of leeway.

The average score for those waiting for a donor at home is 35-50ish. For those on ventilators in the hospital waiting for a donor, the score is between 70 and 90. Those people would be ahead of those waiting at home.

We asked and discovered that the average time on the list in my area is 3-5 months but sometimes it can be just one day.

Tomorrow, we will look at the next process – Waiting on the List.