Exciting News For Transplant Patients

The research on lung transplants being developed in Toronto CA. is one of the most exciting developments in transplant research in years.

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, and his colleagues at the Toronto General Hospital created a bubble to place damaged lungs in. The lungs can keep breathing for 12 to 18 hours at normal body temperature.

The older method of working on the lungs, while they were still in the body had to be completed within 6 hours, or the lungs would die.

The new method also gives hope for patients waiting for transplants such as livers, kidneys or heart.

Currently, only 10 to 15 per cent of donated lungs are suitable for transplants. Keshavjee estimated the new technique could allow up to 60 per cent of lungs to be repaired and used.

The world’s first successful lung transplant was performed in 1983 at Toronto General Hospital by Dr. Joel Cooper. The patient lived for another six years before dying of kidney failure at age 64.

For more in depth detail please check out the web site within the Toronto doctors.