Importance of chronic aspiration in recipients of heart-lung transplants

In a series of eleven recipients of heart-lung transplants (HLT), five have obliterative bronchiolitis. Five of the eleven patients have chronic cough as well as slower than normal gastric emptying and/or oesophageal dysmotility; all five have evidence of bronchiectasis and three have obliterative bronchiolitis. Three of the patients improved after the introduction of treatment to prevent reflux, and another, who had a large phytobezoar, improved after pyloroplasty. In patients with chronic cough after HLT, with or without dyspeptic symptoms or recurring pulmonary sepsis, investigation of oesophageal motility and gastric emptying should be undertaken.