[Medical complications of lung transplantation]. / Complications non chirurgicales de la transplantation pulmonaire.

In 2010, lung transplantation is a valuable therapeutic option for a number of patients suffering from of end-stage non-neoplastic pulmonary diseases. The patients frequently regain a very good quality of life, however, long-term survival is often hampered by the development of complications such as the bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, metabolic and infectious complications. As the bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome is the first cause of death in the medium and long term, an intense immunosuppressive treatment is maintained for life in order to prevent or stabilize this complication. The immunosuppression on the other hand induces a number of potentially severe complications including metabolic complications, infections and malignancies. The most frequent metabolic complications are arterial hypertension, chronic renal insufficiency, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and osteoporosis. Bacterial, viral and fungal infections are the second cause of mortality. They are to be considered as medical emergencies and require urgent assessment and targeted therapy after microbiologic specimens have been obtained. They should not, under any circumstances, be treated empirically and it has also to be kept in mind that the lung transplant recipient may present several concomitant infections. The most frequent malignancies are skin cancers, the post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders, Kaposi's sarcoma and some types of bronchogenic carcinomas, head/neck and digestive cancers. Lung transplantation is no longer an exceptional procedure; thus, the pulmonologist will be confronted with such patients and should be able to recognize the symptoms and signs of the principal non-surgical complications. The goal of this review is to give a general overview of the most frequently encountered complications. Their assessment and treatment, though, will most often require the input of other specialists and a multidisciplinary and transversal approach.