Over the course of almost 50 years, lung transplantation has evolved from an experimental project to a significant means to prolong life and its quality in carefully selected patients with end-stage lung diseases. The introduction of cyclosporine as an immunosuppressive agent in the 1980s allowed for sufficient graft survival to make clinical lung transplantation a reality. Since then, more than 32,000 lung transplants have been performed.
Usual postoperative course
Expected postoperative hospital stay
Lung transplantation is a very complex surgical procedure. Usually the hospital stay is lengthy, close to 2 weeks if no complications occur. There is also an association between more severe disease, as determined by high lung allocation scores, and longer durations of hospital stay, averaging 5–6 weeks.
Operative mortality
Advances in surgical technique have lowered the rate of surgical
complications and overall mortality. However, the rate of
medical complications (usually a consequence of immunosuppression
needed to ensure the survivability of the graft) still
remains high. The inescapable constant exposure of the lungs
to the environment also contributes to the significantly
decreased survival rates of lung transplant recipients when
compared with other solid organ recipients. Hence, in spite
of relatively good 30-day and 1-year survival, the 5-year survival
post lung transplant remains at 50%.