TNA Conference Abstracts

Abstract

Introduction The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, in conjunction with The Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) Melbourne, is the host of the Nationally Funded Centre (NFC) program for paediatric lung and heart/lung transplantation (pLTx). The program is funded for children requiring lung or heart/lung transplants aged 4 - 16yo & >10kg. Referrals are received from paediatric respiratory and cardiology physicians Australia wide plus New Zealand. COVID-19, particularly Victoria's second wave, provided an array of challenges in reviewing and assessing new referrals as well as transferring patients and their carers from interstate to Victoria for transplant and then back home again. Aim All referrals, initial reviews, assessments and transplants within the pLTX program since the start of 2020 were reviewed. We then completed and in-depth review of three case studies of paediatric patients who came from interstate to Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic. Body Since the beginning of 2020 the NFC pLTx program received 21 referrals. Eight of these referrals proceeded to formal assessments for lung or heart/lung transplantation with a total of seven actual transplants occurring during this period. Five of these patients were from outside of Victoria, with three of those requiring transfer during the peak of Victoria's second wave of COVID-19. Border closures, state wide lockdowns and hospital visitor restrictions provided significant challenges for patients, families and clinicians. Conclusion Despite the challenges provided by COVID-19 and Victoria's substantial second wave, we successfully continued running the national pLTx program with excellent outcomes and no waitlist mortality.