What is Lung Transplant?

A Lung transplant is an operation done to replace a diseased lung with a healthy new one.

Mostly it is received from the donor who is dead.  A lung transplant could be done in the matter of the failure of treatment or medication or if the condition is not improved.  

It can be a single or double lung transplant that depends on the patient’s health condition. When it comes to life-saving age does not always matter, almost from babies to adults have undergone this surgery. For instance, a patient Lois Tumanello, a woman of 65 diagnosed with emphysema later safely underwent a single lung transplant at UCLA in March 2007.

Types of lungs Transplant

The three types of lung transplants are

  •  Single Lung transplant – The surgeon will remove one of the diseased lungs.
  • Double Lung transplant – The surgeon will remove both of the lungs.
  • Heart-Lung Transplant  – Heart and both of the Lungs will be removed and replaced with 
  • the donor’s heart and lungs. 

What is a Double Lung transplant?

 A double lung transplant, also known as a bilateral transplant can be done sequentially or all together.

Lung Transplant for cancer patients

Lung cancer is considered one of the major contraindications for a lung transplant. It is rarely recommended these days and also it depends on the cancer stage. It is inappropriate for most cancer patients since it can be hardly practical and seems to be risky. Getting rid of all cancer cells while transplantation is not possible. Meanwhile, a new double lung transplant technique might sound like the solution, it is indeed a solution not in all cases.

Risks involved in Lung transplantation

Generally, lung transplants for cancer patients are involved individually. But this technique seemed to be dangerous as the remaining lung can contaminate the healthy lung and the incisions can cause the cancer cells to leak into the bloodstream. 

New Double Lung Transplant Technique

However, the new technique involved taking both lungs simultaneously. By removing the affected lungs at the same time and replacing them with healthy ones might reduce the risk of cancer cells contaminating the other parts of the body. Meanwhile, when the lungs are removed patients will be hooked up to a heart-lung bypass machine to keep them alive. This technique is followed for patients whose both are affected.

During the pandemic time, at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, surgeons successfully performed Double lung transfer in patients with stage 4 cancer. 

Albert Khoury, 55, of Chicago, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2020 initially it was concentrated in one lung after two rounds of chemotherapy it contaminated the other lung and it was stage 5. Khoury became the first patient to receive double lung transplantation. Later Tannaz Ameli 65 the second person who underwent the double lung transplantation. This was the last approach for both Khoury and Ameli. Both patients are alive and fit.

To conclude, the doctors came up with the idea during the pandemic time, even though the situation was worse they planned and performed it brilliantly with the assistance of other physicians and technological advancement. Even if it is a last resort it is literally a boon to cancer patients.