Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) is an innovative technology that makes more lungs available to patients for transplant. The University of Florida Health is one of only 18 medical centers enrolled in a clinical trial for the first FDA-approved EVLP technology — called the XVIVO perfusion system. As of 2018, UF Health has had successful outcomes with the first eleven lung patients who have been treated with EVLP and looks forward to continuing this success into the future.
The EVLP process
Once our UF Health lung transplant team obtains donor lungs, the lungs are flushed out and preserved before being transported to our medical center. When the lungs arrive at UF Health, they are flushed again and connected to the EVLP machine. The machine preserves the lungs and supplies them with oxygen.
The lung perfusion technology supplies fluid and oxygen to improve damaged or injured donor lungs. It also gives the UF Health lung transplant team more time to assess the lungs for viability. With EVLP, the UF Health lung transplant team can treat the lung tissue and make it more viable for transplant.
EVLP helps expand the pool of donor lungs
There is an increasing demand for donor lungs, and only about 22 percent of the lungs from organ donors are acceptable. EVLP allows our team to use some of the remaining 78 percent of donor lungs that were not usable without EVLP. Lung perfusion technology makes about half of the previously rejected donor lungs acceptable for transplant.
One of the most experienced centers in the United States in EVLP technology
Dr. Tiago Machuca, one of our lung transplant surgeons, was trained at a medical center in Toronto, Canada that is the largest center to use EVLP. Dr. Machuca is proud to bring his expertise to UF Health. Patients who received donor lungs treated with EVLP have had the same results as patients who received acceptable donor lungs that were untreated.
UF Health constantly strives to improve treatment and care for lung transplant patients. EVLP allows our UF Health lung transplant team to provide more patients with donor lungs. EVLP shortens the wait time for donor lungs, improving patients’ quality of life and providing them with a healthy, new set of lungs.