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Penn Transplant Institute

Lung

• About Our Program
• About Our Team
• Lung Transplant Process
  • Transplant Evaluation
  • Before Transplant
  • Transplant Procedure
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Lung Transplant Procedure

When a lung donor is identified, a group of surgeons are sent to evaluate the lungs.  Because of time constraints, patients are called in to the hospital before the surgeons have inspected the lungs. If for any reason the lungs are determined to be unsuitable, the surgery is cancelled. If this happens, the patients retain their place on the wait list. This sometimes happens in our efforts to provide the best lungs possible for our patients.

There are two types of lung transplantation:

• Single-lung transplant – transplant of one lung. This procedure lasts about four hours. An incision is made on the side of the chest according to which lung is being replaced.
• Bilateral-lung transplant – transplant of both lungs. This procedure lasts six to eight hours. An incision is made in the middle of the chest and the lungs are replaced one at a time.

During the course of the evaluation, a determination is made as to whether a single-lung transplant or bilateral-lung transplant is needed. This decision depends on:

• Type of lung disease
• Presence of pulmonary hypertension
• Recipient’s age
• Previous chest surgery

Under special circumstances, a combination heart-lung transplant is offered as an option to patients who could not tolerate a lung transplant alone. In very rare cases, combination lung-liver transplant is offered.

For more information, please view our patient guide.