Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2025
Left Lung Orthotopic Transplantation in a Juvenile Porcine Model for ESLP
Published on: February 14, 2022
Living-donor segmental lung transplantation for pediatric patients
Daisuke Nakajima1, Satona Tanaka1, Tadashi Ikeda2
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Objective:
The preset study evaluated the outcome of living-donor segmental lung transplantation for pediatric patients.
Methods:
Between August 2009 and May 2021, we performed living-donor segmental lung transplantation in 6 critically ill pediatric patients, including 1 patient on a ventilator alone and another patient on a ventilator and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). There were 4 male and 2 female patients, with a median age of 7 years (range, 4-15 years) and a median height of 112.7 cm (range, 95-125.2 cm). The diagnoses included complications of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (n = 4) and pulmonary fibrosis (n = 2). All patients received bilateral lung transplantation under cardiopulmonary bypass. A basal segment and a lower lobe were implanted in 3 patients, and a basal segment and an S6 segment were implanted in the other 3 patients. In 2 patients, the right S6 segmental graft was horizontally rotated 180° and implanted as the left lung.
Results:
Among the 9 segmental grafts implanted, 7 functioned well after reperfusion. Two rotated S6 segmental grafts became congestive, with 1 requiring graft extraction and the other venous repair, which was successful. There was 1 hospital death (14 days) due to sepsis and 1 late death (9 years) due to leukoencephalopathy. The remaining 4 patients are currently alive at 9 months, 10 months, 1.3 years, and 1.9 years.
Conclusions:
Living-donor segmental lung transplantation was a technically difficult but feasible procedure with acceptable outcomes for small pediatric patients with chest cavities that were too small for adult lower lobe implantation.
