Lung Transplantation in Perspective

Abstract

Success in transplantation of the lung has lagged behind success with other organs for a variety of reasons. Paramount among these is the extreme scarcity of healthy donor lungs that can be used as transplants. The common occurrence of pulmonary edema, aspiration, and pneumonia in brain-dead patients precludes the use of lungs from most otherwise acceptable organ donors, particularly in communities such as ours in New York, where there is usually a delay of several days between identification of a donor and declaration of brain death. This scarcity of donor lungs has resulted in the death of 49 of our . . .