Lung Transplant Info

Lung transplantation is a surgical procedure where part or all of a patient's diseased lungs are removed from their body and replaced with healthy ones from a donor.  There are four types of lung transplants: lobar, single lung, double lung and heart-lung.

Placement on the waiting list is based on a lung allocation score (LAS).  This number is between 0 and 100.  Higher numbers indicate that the patient is sicker and therefore are higher on the list.

A lung transplant is not a scheduled procedure.  It can only be done when a donor becomes available.  When this occurs the lungs are looked at to see if they are viable to be transplanted into someone else.  If they are they will match them to someone on the list based on size, blood type and other factors.  When lungs become available they are offered to the transplant center that is closest because lungs only last about six hours outside of the body.  They will go down the waiting list for that center until a match is made.  If no one at that center matches, it is then offered to the next closest centers.  This is why some people choose to be listed at multiple centers.  In some cases it may lessen the amount of time on the list.

With Cystic fibrosis a double lung transplant is necessary.  Cystic fibrosis patients have infections in their lungs.  If any of the lung were to be left behind, the infection would transfer over to the new lung and infect it.  This is why both lungs have to be completely removed.

Cystic fibrosis is not cured by a lung transplant.  Although it will no longer be in the lungs, all other organs in the body are still affected by it.

Links for some more information:

Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients This site gives a list of centers that do transplants and shows the data for survival rates.
UNOS  This site gives a lot of different information on all the transplanted organs.  You can also go in and create data reports to see how many people are on the waiting lists using different criteria.

Interesting videos of ex vivo lungs:

This is a very interesting study.  I was signed up for the ex vivo study in New York, but I did not receive ex vivo lungs.  My lungs were not put in the "box" because they were healthy and passed all the tests.

In NYC they are taking lungs that didn't initially pass all the tests.  Here the lungs are given four hours to be examined and looked at better.  This hopefully will increase the amount of lungs able to donated.

In Pittsburgh they are looking into transporting the lungs using ex vivo instead of ice.  They want to see if keeping the lungs at body temperature affects the patient's recovery.  This is a randomized study where you won't know which method the lungs are going to be delivered until it is time.  Fifty percent of the people will get lungs transported on ice and the other fifty percent will receive the lungs transported ex vivo.

Both studies are using the ex vivo method, but for different reasons.

The ex vivo study being done in New York Prebyterian

The ex vivo study being done in University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

A good look at lungs "breathing" in an ex vivo box