Lung: living related transplantation

As with other paired and lobed solid organs, surgical techniques have now evolved to permit safe live donation. Almost all the published experience comes from one centre, with cystic fibrosis recipients receiving right and left lower lobes, typically one from each parent. Donor morbidity has been acceptable, with no known deaths. Early survival, perhaps because patients are only transplanted in extremis, has been less good than can be achieved in cadaver transplantation. Early and late rejection remain at least as common as after conventional transplants, but is nearly always asynchronous, affecting one lung at a time. There remain significant ethical difficulties, and the approach has yet to prove itself.