UC San Diego Health successfully completed the first lung transplant for a patient with HIV in San Diego County.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Regional Milestone: UC San Diego Health successfully completed the first lung transplant for a patient with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in San Diego County, expanding surgical access for patients with infectious complexities.
- Multidisciplinary Coordination: Successful outcomes for these complex cases require precise collaboration between transplant surgeons, pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists, and pharmacists.
- Advanced Infection Control: The transplant program utilizes specialized therapies, including bacteriophage therapy to target multidrug-resistant bacteria, to manage severe lung infections in high-risk patients.
UC San Diego Health has performed the first lung transplant for a patient positive with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in San Diego County, according to the organization.
Transplanting organs in individuals with infectious diseases requires a highly specialized and coordinated approach. Candidates undergo screening to ensure their infection is well-controlled, with close attention to the overall health of a person’s immune system and organ function. This requires coordination between a multidisciplinary team of transplant surgeons, pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists, and pharmacists. Long-term care includes ongoing viral monitoring and individualized medication strategies to optimize patient outcomes.
“This achievement reflects a shift of what is possible in lung transplantation in San Diego,” said Kamyar Afshar, medical director of the lung transplant program at UC San Diego Health. “Our goal is to safely expand access and availability to lung transplantation for patients who historically may not have qualified, while maintaining the highest standards of outcomes.”
Programs capable of performing these transplants remain limited due to the level of expertise, infrastructure, and care coordination required. As the region’s only academic medical center, the Center for Transplantation at UC San Diego Health is the only transplant center in the county to deliver this level of specialized transplant care for patients living with HIV, hepatitis C, and multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.
Eugene Golts, surgical director of lung transplant at UC San Diego Health, performed the surgery. The medical team also included Saima Aslam, medical director of the solid organ transplant infectious diseases.
At UC San Diego Health, approximately 50 lung transplant surgeries are performed each year. The program utilizes innovative surgical approaches and advanced therapies, and it is among the few centers in the US to use bacteriophage therapy. This treatment utilizes viruses that target multidrug-resistant bacteria to control severe lung infections, according to the organization.
