[Present condition of lung transplantation candidates in eastern Japan]

We investigated the present condition of lung transplant candidates and the familiarity of doctors in eastern Japan by questionnaire. We shipped questionnaires to 614 hospitals in the Hokkaido district, the Tohoku district, the Kanto district and Niigata Prefecture, a received responses from 216 departments (200 hospitals). The percentage of respondents was 32.6%. There were 191 lung transplant candidates, 97 men and 94 women, in the past two years. Moreover, there were 45 patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH), 38 with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, 23 with pulmonary emphysema, 20 with pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis, among others. Currently, however, there are 88 patients who are lung transplant candidates, a large number, in eastern Japan. On the other hand, only 38 of 68 departments had informed their patients about lung transplantation. It was a lamentable result for transplant surgeons, and points urgently to the importance of giving information about lung transplantation.