[Current developments in lung transplantation]

Lung transplantation is the established treatment of benign end-stage pulmonary diseases after failure of alternative surgical and medical treatment options. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of current developments in selected fields of lung transplantation.

A selective literature search was conducted.

Lung transplantation in Germany is currently limited by a donor organ shortage. Measures to increase organ donation rates and to optimize the use of available donor organs are required. Ex-vivo lung perfusion, currently mainly used to re-evaluate marginal donor organs, has the potential to increase the available donor pool and to serve as a platform for additional therapies.

Refinements in organ allocation, perioperative management, immunosuppression, and in the understanding of acute cellular and humoral rejection as well as chronic lung allograft dysfunction contributed to improvements in long-term outcome after lung transplantation.