Hyderabad: Transplant surgeons at Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) have performed 12 Covid double lung transplants and 50 lung and heart transplant procedures between September 2020 and this April, a press release said. The Heart and Lung Transplant Institute of KIMS received critical patients with respiratory failure due to Covid-19 from across the country. The Covid double lung transplant involves transplanting both the lungs when they get damaged to Covid-19.

The KIMS surgeons said that the course of Covid infection in individuals was unpredictable. “Patients who have lung involvement and develop respiratory failure early in the course of illness tend to have more severe disease. Then they are put on advanced respiratory support known as ECMO and when patients do not recover, lung transplantation is the last recourse,” said Dr Sandeep Attawar, Programme Director and Chair, Thoracic Organ Transplant programme, KIMS Hospitals.

Among the patients who recovered from double lung transplants, there was a youngster who was on ECMO support for 56 days and surgeons subsequently performed lung transplantation after a donor’s lung was available.

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