Bronchoscopy after cardiopulmonary transplantation.

Eighteen combined heart and lung transplant operations were performed between March, 1981, and March, 1984. Six of these patients have undergone bronchoscopy, at varying intervals after transplantation. Five of these procedures were done for specific clinical indications; one was done incidentally, during another surgical procedure requiring general anesthesia. All patients had intact, healing tracheal anastomotic suture lines; there were no instances of tracheal stenosis. The distal tracheobronchial tree appeared endoscopically normal in the transplanted lungs, except in areas of known infiltrates. Four of the patients had endobronchial biopsies, and alveolar eosinophilic proteinaceous exudate and submucosal mononuclear infiltrate were consistent features. Two of the later biopsies suggest that squamous metaplasia of the respiratory epithelium may occur with long-term follow-up. Controversy exists as to the optimal technique for tracheal anastomosis, but in the case of the steroid-treated, immunosuppressed transplant patient, continuous anastomosis with polypropylene has yielded satisfactory results.