Steps for a lung transplant
Once the transport coordinator identifies a viable organ, the patient is called and must then on refrain from eating and drinking completely.
Upon reaching the hospital, the patient’s blood group and other criteria, including age, height and weight are double checked to ensure that they are compatible with the donor’s. A maximum of 20% difference in these criteria can be made allowance for when selecting a recipient. If the criteria are a match, the patient is prepped for surgery.
A complete physical, chest x-ray, blood tests and electrocardiogram are completed and after the patient is prepped, including shaving of the incision area, a sedative is administered intravenously.
A central venous catheter is inserted into a vein in the neck or groin to deliver fluids, nutrition solutions, antibiotics and blood. A tube connected to a ventilator is also placed into the windpipe to help the patient breathe.
The transplant surgery lasts about six hours. The surgical team makes a chest incision on one side, then removes the diseased lung in a procedure known as a pneumonectomy. The healthy lung is then inserted, and the bronchus, pulmonary vein and pulmonary artery is connected to the patient’s own. Air is allowed to enter through a tube and once the patient is ventilated and the transplanted lung is functioning normally, the surgical team repeats the same procedure on the other side. This is known as a sequential double-lung transplant, and it is a less invasive manner of transplanting both lungs.
The patient is then kept in the intensive care unit for recovery, before being moved to the hospital’s transplant unit, and eventually discharged.