The international status of lung transplantation

Lung transplantation has continued to increase yearly, but is now beginning to plateau possibly due to the stagnant donor pool. Emphysema/COPD continues to be the leading transplant diagnosis and infection, rejection and BO are the leading causes of recipient deaths. Actuarial survival statistics show that bilateral transplants have a slightly higher survival rate than single lung transplants with the difference widening the further out from transplantation one gets. The 6-year survival rate for all lung transplants was 40%.