Lung transplant recipients' views on the integration of their new organs

Abstract

Aim. Although donorship issues and the integration of the new organs are the most distinguishing aspects of lung transplantation (LTx) compared to other kinds of ‘high-tech’ medicine, there is a paucity of papers on that matter. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate these aspects in young adult LTx recipients with at least 1-year survival.

Methods. Semi-structured interviews; content analysis of specific parts of the interviews; frequency distributions of resulting categories.

Sample. Forty-five adults aged 18–42 years (mean: 32 ± 5.5 years). Post-transplant survival ranged from 1 to 11 years.

Results. The majority of recipients (60%) fulfilled criteria of denial towards the foreign organ and/or the donor. However, they were rather sensitive towards the ethical and psychological impact of the upcoming option of living donorship in LTx. Also, the majority of recipients (79%) understood that there might as well be good reason not to opt for a LTx.

Conclusions. LTx recipients appeared at first sight ‘pragmatic’ towards the gift of life, but they remained sensitive to its ethical and psychological challenges.

Keywords:

• Cystic fibrosis
• lung transplantation
• coping
• body image

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants for their co-operation. The Mukoviszidose e.V. [Germany's cystic fibrosis charity] kindly gave financial support. They are also grateful to Prof. Margareta Sanner, Sweden, as well as to the blind reviewers for comments on previous drafts of this manuscript. Finally, the authors thank the members of the Catholic pastoral care group at Hanover Medical School for providing us with a quiet room in which to conduct the interviews.