What Are the Lungs?

Your lungs are organs in your chest that allow your body to take in oxygen from the air. They also help remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas/toxic) from your body.

Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

    ARDS
    ASBESTOS

 

Your lungs are organs in your chest that allow your body to take in oxygen from the air. They also help remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas/toxic) from your body.

 

    COPD
    COUGH
    VENTILATOR
    PULMONARY HYPERTENSION

heart disease symptomes

 

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What To Expect After a Lung Transplant

Recovery in the Hospital

After surgery, you'll go to the hospital's intensive care unit for at least several days. The tubes that were inserted before surgery will remain for a few days.

 

The tube in your windpipe helps you breathe. Other tubes deliver medicines to, and drain fluids from, your body. You also will have sticky patches called electrodes attached to your chest to monitor your heart.

 

After leaving the ICU, you'll go to a hospital room. The staff will carefully watch your recovery.

 

You'll be taught how to do deep breathing exercises with a spirometer. This is a machine with a tube that you breathe into. When you breathe into the tube, the spirometer measures how much air your lungs can hold. It also measures how fast you can blow air out of your lungs after taking a deep breath.

 

You'll need to cough often. Coughing helps clear fluids from your lungs so they can work properly. A nurse will show you how to hold a pillow tightly near your incision area while you cough to help decrease discomfort.

 

Your immune system will regard your new lung as a "foreign object." It will create antibodies (proteins) against the lung. This may cause your body to reject the new organ. To prevent this, your doctor will prescribe medicines to suppress your immune system. These medicines are called immunosuppressants.

 

Because these medicines weaken your immune system, you're more likely to get an infection after the transplant. Your medical team will take steps to prevent infection while you're in the hospital.

 

On average, people who have a lung transplant stay in the hospital from 1 to 3 weeks. However, some people have complications and stay much longer.

 

Recovery After Leaving the Hospital

Before you leave the hospital, your medical team will teach you how to keep track of your overall health. You'll learn how to watch your weight and take your blood pressure, pulse, and temperature.

Staff also will show you how to check your lung function. If you have diabetes, you'll learn how to test your blood sugar.

 

For the first 3 months after surgery, you'll go to the hospital often for blood tests, chest x rays, lung function tests, and other tests. After 3 months, if you're doing well, you'll visit less often.

 

Making healthy lifestyle choices is very important. Not smoking, following a healthy diet, and following your doctor's advice on using alcohol will help you recover and stay as healthy as possible.

 

A healthy diet includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. It also includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, and fat-free or low-fat milk or milk products. A healthy diet is low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt), and added sugar.

 

Your doctor may recommend an exercise program when you're able to do physical activity.

 

Emotional Issues

Having a lung transplant may cause fear, anxiety, and stress. While you're waiting for a lung transplant, you may worry that you won't live long enough to get a new lung. After surgery, you may feel overwhelmed, depressed, or worried about complications.

 

All of these feelings are normal for someone going through major surgery. It's important to talk about how you feel with your health care team. Talking to a professional counselor also can help. If you're feeling very depressed, your health care team or counselor may prescribe medicines to make you feel better.

 

Support from family and friends also can help relieve stress and anxiety. Let your loved ones know how you feel and what they can do to help you.

 

 

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

 

What Are the Risks of Lung Transplant?

A lung transplant can improve your quality of life and extend your lifespan. The first year after the transplant is the most critical. This is when the risk for complications is the highest.

 

In recent years, short-term survival from lung transplant has improved. Figures from 2005 on single-lung transplant show that:

 

  • - More than 82 percent of patients survive the first year
  • - Nearly 60 percent survive 3 years
  • - More than 43 percent survive 5 years

 

Survival rates for double-lung transplants are similar. Talk with your doctor about what these figures may mean for you.

 

Complications

 

The major complications of lung transplant are rejection and infection.

 

Rejection

 

Your immune system will regard your new lung as a "foreign object." It will create antibodies (proteins) against the lung. This may cause your body to reject the new organ.

 

To prevent this, your doctor will prescribe medicines called immunosuppressants to suppress your immune system. You will need to take these medicines for the rest of your life.

 

Rejection is most common in the first 6 months after surgery, but it can happen any time after the transplant. Rejection can develop slowly or suddenly. Your doctor will teach you how to recognize possible signs and symptoms of rejection. If you know these signs and symptoms, you can seek treatment right away.

 

Signs and symptoms of rejection include:

 

  • - Fever and flu-like symptoms
  • - Chest congestion
  • - Cough
  • - Shortness of breath
  • - New pain around the lung
  • - Generally feeling unwell

 

If you have any of these signs or symptoms, seek medical care. Your doctor may prescribe medicines to treat the rejection and prevent complications.

 

These medicines may cause side effects, such as headaches, feeling sick to your stomach, and flu-like symptoms. If you have side effects, talk to your doctors. They may be able to change your medicine or adjust the doses.

 

Infection

 

The medicines you take to prevent the rejection of your new lung may weaken your immune system. As a result, you're more likely to get infections.

 

While you're in the hospital, staff will take special steps to prevent you from getting infections. After you leave the hospital, you also can take steps to prevent infection:

 

  • - Wash your hands often.
  • - Take care of your teeth and gums.
  • - Protect your skin from scratches and sores.
  • - Stay away from crowds and from people who have colds and the flu.

 

Other Risks

 

Long-term use of immunosuppressants can cause diabetes, kidney damage, and osteoporosis (thinning of the bones). These medicines also can increase the risk of cancer. Talk to your doctor about the long-term risks of using immunosuppressants.

 

Key Points

  • Lung transplant is surgery to remove a person's diseased lung and replace it with a healthy lung from a deceased donor.

 

  • Lung transplants are done on people who are likely to die from lung disease within 1 to 2 years. Their conditions are so severe that other treatments, such as medicines or breathing devices, no longer work.

 

  • Lung transplants aren't very common due to the small number of donor lungs available. Each patient must go through a careful screening process to make sure he or she is a good candidate for a lung transplant.

 

  • Some people get one lung during a transplant. This is called a single-lung transplant. Other people get two lungs. This is called a double-lung transplant. Some people who have severe heart disease and lung disease get both organs. This is called a heart-lung transplant.

 

  • Lung transplants most often are used to treat people who have severe COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension, or alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

 

  • Lung transplants are done in medical centers where the staff has a lot of organ transplant experience. If you need a lung transplant, you must apply to a center's transplant program. You will go through a careful selection process.

 

  • If you're accepted into a medical center's transplant program, you'll be placed on the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network's national waiting list. OPTN matches a donor's lungs to a recipient based on need, severity of disease, and whether the transplant will improve the recipient's chances of survival. Organs are matched for blood type and the size of the donor lung.

 

  • During the lung transplant, the surgeon will make a cut in your chest to open it. He or she will remove your diseased lung and connect the main airway of the donor lung to your airway and its blood vessels to those of your heart. For a double-lung transplant, the surgeon will remove your diseased lungs, one at a time, and replace them with the donor lungs. You may be placed on a heart-lung bypass machine during the surgery.

 

  • After surgery, you'll spend several days in the hospital's intensive care unit. Then you will go to a hospital room. The staff will carefully watch your recovery. On average, people spend 1 to 3 weeks in the hospital.

 

  • Before you leave the hospital, the staff will teach you how to keep track of your overall health, how to check your lung function, and how to make healthy lifestyle choices. You also will learn the signs of the two main complications of lung transplant-rejection and infection.

 

  • Rejection can come on suddenly or slowly. To prevent rejection, your doctor will prescribe medicines to suppress your immune system. You will need to take these medicines for the rest of your life.

 

  • The medicines you take to prevent rejection may weaken your immune system. As a result, you're more likely to get infections. You can take steps to prevent infection. Wash your hands often, take care of your teeth and gums, protect your skin from scratches and sores, and stay away from crowds and people who have colds or the flu.

 

  • A lung transplant can improve your quality of life and may help you live longer than you would without the surgery. However, lung transplants have serious risks. The short- and long-term complications of the surgery can be life threatening