Interruption of bronchial circulation leads to a severe decrease in peribronchial oxygen tension in standard lung transplantation technique1

Abstract

The persistence of a very low peribronchial tissue oxygen tension in the early phase after lung transplantation cannot be influenced by improved pulmonary artery flow and solely relates to the central venous pO2, which cannot be augmented by the addition of NO. This mechanism might be a trigger for anastomotic healing problems, infectious complications and later development of obliterative bronchiolitis (OB).