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Pharmacotherapy Publishes Consensus Recommendations for Use of Maintenance Immunosuppression in Solid Organ Transplantation

Published on: Dec 6, 2022

ACCP Members Lead Multidisciplinary Panel of American Transplant Clinicians in Developing New Recommendations

Uninterrupted access to immunosuppression is paramount to minimize rejection and maintain organ and patient survival in solid organ transplantation. However, lack of a standardized approach to maintenance immunosuppression management has resulted in significant heterogeneity in patient care plans and limited access to necessary medications. A multidisciplinary panel of American transplant clinicians was led by ACCP members Joelle Nelson and Maya Campara. Nelson and Campara are active members of the Immunology and Transplantation PRN. They submitted a proposal for the recommendations in late 2020 and coordinated a 12-person team from 10 institutions to review the published literature and formulate consensus recommendations for the use of maintenance immunosuppression in specific organ groups.

The recommendations were reviewed and endorsed by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the American Society of Transplantation, and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. These consensus recommendations are intended to provide transplant clinicians with a summary of literature on maintenance immunosuppression in the modern era and to support transplant team members working to secure medication access for patients. The consensus recommendations and executive summary are published open access in the August 2022 issue of Pharmacotherapy, an official journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Pharmacotherapy editor-in-chief, Dr. C. Lindsay DeVane, commented:

The path to prolonging life with transplantation of a solid organ involves many components, including cultural acceptance, donor availability, organ preservation, surgical technique, recipient compatibility, and postoperative care. The latter involves suppressing the host’s natural defenses for combating threats and injury. As noted in the consensus recommendations, lifelong maintenance immunosuppression is currently a universal need for organ recipients. The editors of Pharmacotherapy encourage adoption of these recommendations endorsed by international transplant associations for sustaining a successful transplant.