Treatment with Esbriet, Ofev or with steroids was found to be safe for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients needing a bilateral lung transplant (BLTx), a study reports.
The research, “Effect of Antifibrotics on Short-Term Outcome after Bilateral Lung Transplantation A Multi-Centre Analysis,” was published in the European Respiratory Journal.
Esbriet and Ofev are two approved and recommended anti-fibrotic therapies for IPF, a subgroup of interstitial lung diseases (ILD). However, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended stopping Ofev before major surgery due to an increased risk for bleeding events.
Corticosteroids have been the usual approach for treating different types of ILDs, but their efficacy is supported by little evidence. When medicines fail to treat lung disease, a transplant of one or both lungs is an established strategy to improve patients’ quality of life and survival. In a bilateral transplant, both lungs are transplanted but one at a time.
