Donor cerebral emboli as a cause of acute graft dysfunction in lung transplantation.

Early graft dysfunction in lung transplantation has many causes, most commonly preservation injury. This report details a more unusual cause of graft failure and respiratory decompensation in the early postoperative period donor cerebral emboli occluding segments of the pulmonary arterial tree in the implanted lung allografts of two patients who had received single lung implants from a common donor in whom massive cerebral trauma had been incurred in a motor vehicle accident. The incidence, complications, and clinical manifestations of cerebral emboli are discussed.