NEW YORK LUNG TRANSPLANT

The collapse of World Trade Center in New York led to unimaginable increase in patients suffering from severe lung diseases which further led to an increase in the number of lung transplants taking place annually. Some of the most affected people being fire fighters, consumers of microwave popcorn etc.

About Lung Transplant Surgery

Lung transplantation is a surgical procedure in which a patient's diseased lungs are partially or totally replaced by healthy lungs from a deceased donor. While lung transplants carry certain associated risks however they can extend life expectancy and enhance the quality of life for patients with chronic lung disease. In general there are three types of lung transplant

• Lobe
• Single-lung
• Double-lung

Lung Transplant Survival Rate

Lung transplant surgery is a “last resort” treatment for patients with end-stage lung cancer who have exhausted all other available treatments without improvement. Though it is very complex form of treatment but important advances in surgical techniques and pharmacologic management has dramatically increased lung transplant survival rate in New York. The survival rate generally ranges from 1 to 3 years. It has been observed that the greater the number of lung transplants taking place in a Health Care Center, the more the survival rate of patients with lung transplant from that center increases. This is due to increase in experience and skills of the surgeons out there. Despite these advances, however, few patients benefit from transplantation because of the scarcity of lung donors.

Lung Transplant Centers in NY

With the rapid spread of critical lung diseases in New York the need for lung transplant is also increasing and this has led to the foundation of numerous lung transplant centers in New York. These centers consist of a team of lung cancer doctors, specialists, surgeons, researchers and nurses who regularly face life saving challenges and work towards finding advanced techniques that can lead to improved survival. The most popular lung transplant centers in New York are the ones that have taken a leadership role in perfecting techniques and patient selection criteria for lung transplantation.

Lung Transplant Rejection

The two main complications of transplant surgery are organ rejection and infection. Chronic rejection has remained a major source of morbidity and mortality following lung transplantation. Since your body's immune system will identify the new lung as a foreign invader, it will normally try to get rid of it or reject it. To "turn off" this response, patients are given immunosuppressive or anti-rejection medicines and antibiotics. Although rejection is most common in the first six months after surgery, it can occur at any time. Lung transplant rejection can be divided into three subcategories:

• Hyper acute rejection
• Acute rejection
• Chronic rejection

Fortunately, rejection can be treated, especially if the signs of rejection are recognized early which includes:

• Fever
• Flu-like aches
• Shortness of breath
• Chest congestion
• Fatigue or generally feeling "lousy"

Lung Transplant Criteria

The ideal lung transplant candidate is a person with end-stage lung disease for whom conventional therapy has totally failed in satisfactorily improving life expectancy. Individuals with the following lung conditions may be candidates for lung transplantation:

• Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Cystic fibrosis
• Sleep apnea syndrome and severe asthma attacks that can cause lung cancer
• Mesothelioma
• Chronic bronchitis, bronchiolitis

There are strict guidelines to determine which patients are eligible for transplantation and this can be suggested only by a lung cancer specialist. A national waiting list run by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) matches donors to potential recipients based on shared blood type, lung size, the severity of the patient's disease and likelihood that a new lung will improve the patient's survival.

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