Intravenous prostaglandin E1, cold crystalloid flush and topical hypothermia for cardiopulmonary graft preservation.

For no organ is the need more acute than for the lung or heart-lung block. The new improved "freezing" technique with simultaneous use of intravenous prostaglandin E1 will result in reliable and adequate heart-lung block preservation. The lungs are flushed with high-volume (60 ml/kg), low-pressure (less than 20 mmHg), low-flow (15 ml/kg/min), using modified Euro-Collins solution (added 12 Meq/L of MgSO4 and 65 ml/L of 50% Dextrose). Additional topical cooling has been achieved by cold Physiosol and the excised graft is then placed in a plastic bag filled with Physiosol. This static hypothermia has been successfully used with extended ischemia times of more than six hours in primates and almost four hours in man. Forty heart-lung transplantations have been done from March 1981 to September 1986 and nine of them have been performed using this "freezing" technique with prostaglandin E1. Distant graft procurement has been used twice for heart-lung transplantation. All nine most recent patients who have received the graft harvested with this new "freezing" technique are doing well.