Anatomical Gifts — Lung Policy Changes Enhance Survival

The following excerpts are from Denise Grady, Lung Patients See a New Era of Transplants, NY Times, Sept. 24, 2006:

A quiet revolution in the world of lung transplants is saving the lives of people who, just two years ago, would have died on the waiting list.  * * *

Starting in May 2005, new rules nationwide put patients who needed transplants most at the top of the list — people who would soon die without a transplant, but who had a good chance of surviving after one.

Previously, lungs went to whoever had been waiting longest, even if another patient needed them more. The waiting time was often two years or more, so there was little hope for people with lung diseases that came on suddenly or progressed rapidly.

Another major change is that more lungs from cadavers have become available, for two reasons: more people are becoming organ donors, and doctors have figured out ways to salvage lungs that previously would have been considered unusable. The new methods use drugs, respirator settings and other techniques to prevent damage to the lungs and keep their tiny air sacs open in brain-dead patients.

In the past, lungs could be retrieved from only about 15 percent of organ donors, but at some centers the rates have risen to 40 percent.