[The first allogenic tracheal transplantation in humans 45 years ago : Procedure, course, and outcome]

In November/December 1978, the first successful tracheal transplantation in humans was performed at the University ENT Clinic in Cologne by the then senior physicians Kurt G. Rose (later chief physician in Dortmund) and Klaus Sesterhenn (later chief physician in Duisburg). Director of the clinic at that time was Prof. Dr. Dr. Fritz Wustrow [10]. The immunological foundations and preliminary work were laid by Sesterhenn in the context of a total of 338 tracheal transplants in Lewis rats in the 1970s (details in the text). The first successful tracheal transplantation was performed on 18 November 1978 in a, then 19-year-old patient who had previously had a motorcycle accident. The donor organ was explanted in the University Hospital Essen and transplanted about 160 min later in the Cologne University ENT Clinic, first into a pocket of the right sternocleidomastoid muscle. The definitive transplantation took place on 06 December 1978. In the article, the circumstances at that time and the perioperative course in the Cologne University ENT Clinic are described by an eyewitness. The former patient is still well and without complications after more than four decades.