For a single-lung transplant, surgery will take between 6 and 8 hours. For a double-lung transplant, surgery will take 8 to 12+ hours.
A lung transplant is a major operation that may take several months to recover from. It could be quite a while before you're able to return to work, so you'll need to make necessary arrangements with your employer.
A lung transplant is a complex operation and the risk of complications is high. Some complications are related to the operation itself. Others are a result of the immunosuppressive medicine, which is needed to prevent your body rejecting the new lungs.
After your lung transplant—major surgery for which you prepared carefully—you'll likely enjoy a significantly improved quality of life. Most patients who have a transplant due to the effects of pulmonary fibrosis (PF) breathe better, increase their activity, and can discontinue supplemental oxygen.
Because of the fragility of the lung, the survival rates for lung transplant patients are not as good as for other solid organ transplants, with a five-year survival rate of about 50-60%. The biggest limiting factor in lung transplant is having enough suitable lung donors.
There is a large variety of causes of death after lung transplantation with a dominant role of infection, CLAD and carcinoma. With increasing follow-up time, infection becomes less prevalent and CLAD and carcinoma are observed more frequently.
Then at age 28 doctors offered him the stark and risky choice of a double lung transplant — first of its kind at UNC Hospitals and likely the Southeast. Graham gambled and won, beating what his own surgeon called 50-50 odds and living another 32 years — the world's longest survival.
Lung Transplant Life Expectancy
The leading cause of death following an organ transplant is cancer. 4 Immunosuppressants, the drugs that prevent your body from rejecting the new organ, can increase cancer risk. The number of lung recipients over age 65 has been growing.
It is common for transplant recipients to resume a more normal lifestyle, including sexual activity, as they recover. Sexual function may not have been an important part of your life before the transplant, but it may now be higher on your agenda.
The recovery process
It usually takes at least 3 to 6 months to fully recover from transplant surgery. For the first 6 weeks after surgery, avoid pushing, pulling or lifting anything heavy. You'll be encouraged to take part in a rehabilitation programme involving exercises to build up your strength.
A person's individual outlook will vary greatly based on a number of factors, but having one lung should not decrease a person's life expectancy.
For a single-lung transplant, surgery will take between 6 and 8 hours. For a double-lung transplant, surgery will take 8 to 12+ hours.
Lung transplant involves the removal of the damaged lung and replacement with a new healthy organ. To do the surgery, the doctor makes a cut in your side about 6 inches below your armpit. This cut is called an incision. Then, the doctor removes part of a rib so he or she can take out your lung a put in the new one.
During lung transplant surgery, you are asleep and pain-free (under general anesthesia). A surgical cut is made in the chest. Lung transplant surgery is often done with the use of a heart-lung machine. This device does the work of your heart and lungs while your heart and lungs are stopped for the surgery.
For many patients, a lung transplant is lifesaving and not only extends their life expectancy but improves their quality of life. The lung transplant survival rate one year after transplant is 88 percent. After 3 years, the lung transplant survival rate is 73 percent.
During a double-lung transplant, surgeons remove your diseased lungs, one at a time, and then attach the donor lungs to your airways and to the blood vessels that lead to and from your heart. The procedure will be done with general anesthesia, so you will be unaware and won't feel any pain.
If you take good care of yourself, and if the transplant goes well, you should be able to achieve a good quality of life with just one new lung. And you won't need oxygen.
8 In conjunction, long term survival has continued to improve; current reported survival of bilateral lung transplant recipients at 1, 3 and 5 years is 90%, 74% and 68%, respectively,8 which exceeds international survival rates of 82%, 69% and 59%, respectively (Box 7).
If you are going to receive a lung from an organ donor who has died (cadaver), you will be placed on a waiting list of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS.) The average person waits around two years for a single lung transplant, and as long as three years for two lungs.
Lung Transplant Disqualifications
Active or recent history of malignancy. Acute medical instability. Significant dysfunction of another major organ system that is not treatable. Non-adherence to medical therapy or follow up.
General Dietary Recommendations
No uncooked food such as sushi or meat. Meat should be well done. Raw vegetables need to be washed and scrubbed by someone else other than you. Raw fruits and vegetables, especially root vegetables, may contain fungus.
What's the risk of rejection? Between 20 to 30 out of 100 patients experience rejection during the first year after a lung transplant. The risk of rejection is highest in the first 3-6 months after a transplant.
Both lungs are removed from the recipient and replaced with the lung implants from the donors in a single operation. Most people who receive lung transplants from living donors have cystic fibrosis and are close relatives of the donors.