Improved lung preservation with cold air storage.

Conventional topical slush cooling limits lung transport to 4 to 6 hours. For this canine study of an alternate air cooling system, 37 canine lungs were removed: 24 were placed in plastic bags, and inserted in a Transplanthermm container at core air temperatures (n = 6 lungs each) of (A) 4 degrees C, (B) 8 degrees C, (C) 12 degrees C, and (D) 20 degrees C; 6 were stored conventionally in ice slush (E); and 7 were transplanted immediately (F). After 8 hours, the stored lungs were transplanted and the contralateral pulmonary artery was ligated. Survival, arterial oxygen tension, and extravascular lung water were monitored at 15 minutes and every hour for 4 hours. Four-hour survival was 100% in groups A, B, and F; 83% in group C, 50% in group D, and 17% in group E. The mean arterial oxygen tension at 1 hour was lower in group E (6.4 +/- 2.4 kPa) than in group A (39.8 +/- 13.2 kPa) (p = 0.0002) or in group F (42.0 +/- 16.2 kPa) (p = 0.0035). Extravascular lung water in group E was higher at 15 minutes (15.44 +/- 5.63 mL/kg) than in group A (3.76 +/- 0.63 mL/kg) (p = 0.0001) and group F (4.69 +/- 1.65 mL/kg) (p = 0.003). Cold air storage appears to provide better lung preservation than hypothermic immersion in ice slush.