49-year-old man gets new lease of life after bilateral lung transplant

BENGALURU: A 49-year-old man, who was diagnosed with Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) five years ago recently, underwent bilateral sequential lung transplantation (transplant of both lungs) at SS Sparsh Hospital in RR Nagar, Bengaluru. The transplant was jointly performed by Dr Kumud Dhital and his thoracic transplant team from Sparsh, and Dr Ravindra Mehta and his pulmonology team from Apollo Hospitals. Dr Dhital is Programme & Surgical Director, Heart & Lung Transplant, Sparsh Hospital and Dr Mehta is Director, Pulmonology, Apollo Hospitals.

"The transplant was done as a part of an MoU between the surgical team of Sparsh Hospitals and the pulmonology team of Apollo Hospitals," said Dr Dhital.  He added that the patient was recently reviewed at Sparsh Hospital for a rapidly progressive end-stage respiratory failure.

ILD is an umbrella term used for a large group of diseases that cause scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs, leading to stiffness in the lungs which makes it difficult to breathe. Lung damage from ILDs is often irreversible and tends to worsen with time.

Speaking about the procedure to TNSE, Dr Dhital said while waiting for the transplant, the patient had lost a lot of weight. "The bilateral lung transplantation is a high-risk procedure. In heart and lung transplants, regardless of the blood group and tissue typing, sizing is very important. The donor's lungs should fit the size of the chest cavity of the recipient. Lungs tend to shrink.

We often cannot use donor lungs because of size mismatch," he explained. In this case, he said, the donor lungs were earlier rejected by another hospital. "In this case too, they were a little over sized but we waited and allowed them to adjust to the recipient's cavity," added the surgeon.