Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Study of Experimental Organ Donation Models for Lung Transplantation
Published on: March 15, 2024
Various combinations of living and deceased donors for lung retransplantation-a single institutional retrospective
Akihiro Ohsumi1, Satona Tanaka1, Yoshito Yamada1
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kyoto University Hospital, Kyoto, Japan.
Objectives:
Lung retransplantation has been performed as a treatment option mainly for chronic lung allograft dysfunction; however, the outcomes of lung retransplantation have been reported to be worse than those of primary lung transplantation. Because of the scarcity of deceased donors in our country, our lung transplant experience includes both living and deceased donors. Therefore, we have experienced lung retransplantation cases with various combinations of living and deceased donors. The aim of this study was to explore technical pitfalls and outcomes of lung retransplantation in this unique environment.
Methods:
We performed 311 lung transplantation procedures between April 2002 and October 2022. Eight lung retransplantation cases (2.6%) were analysed retrospectively.
Results:
At lung retransplantation, the age of the recipient patients ranged from 11 to 61 years (median, 33 years). The combinations of donor sources (primary lung transplantation/lung retransplantation) were as follows: 2 living/living, 2 deceased/living, 3 living/deceased and 1 deceased/deceased. Seven of 8 patients received lung retransplantation for chronic lung allograft dysfunction. Hospital death occurred in 2 patients (25.0%). The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates after lung retransplantation (n = 8) were 75.0%, 75.0% and 75.0%, respectively, while those after primary lung transplantation (n = 303) were 92.8%, 83.4% and 76.4%, respectively (P = 0.162).
Conclusions:
Lung retransplantation with various combinations of living and deceased donors is a technically difficult but feasible procedure with acceptable outcomes.

