Lung Transplant Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Lung Transplant, including details on risks, prognosis, procedure, surgery, organ donation.

Lung transplantation: current status and challenges.

Pierson RN

Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Maryland and Baltimore VAMC, Baltimore, MD, USA. rpierson@smail.umaryland.edu

The lung is an anatomically complex vital organ whose normal physiology depends on actively regulated ventilation and perfusion, and maintenance of a delicate blood-air barrier over a huge surface area in direct contact with a potentially hostile environment. Despite significant progress over the past 25 years, both short- and long-term outcomes remain significantly inferior for lung recipients relative to other "solid" organs. This review summarizes the current status of lung transplantation so as to frame the principle challenges currently facing end-stage lung-failure patients and the practitioners who care for them.

Published 23 June 2006 in Transplantation, 81(12): 1609-15.
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