Coronavirus patient receives world’s first living donor lung transplant in Japan

Kyoto University Hospital said the woman underwent an 11-hour operation by a 30-member team to transplant lung tissue from her husband and son

She is expected to leave the hospital in about two months and the donors are also in stable condition, the university said

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This combination of radiographs shows the chest of the patient before the lung transplant (left) and after the surgery (right). Photo: Kyoto University Hospital via AP

Published: 4:48pm, 9 Apr 2021Updated: 4:48pm, 9 Apr 2021

Doctors in Japan announced on Thursday they have successfully performed the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from Covid-19.

The recipient, identified only as a woman from Japan’s western region of Kansai, is recovering after the nearly 11-hour operation on Wednesday, Kyoto University Hospital said in a statement.

It said her husband and son, who donated parts of their lungs, are also in stable condition.

The university said it was the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a person with Covid-19 lung damage. Transplants from brain-dead donors in Japan are still rare, and living donors are considered a more realistic option for patients.

“We demonstrated that we now have an option of lung transplants [from living donors],” Dr Hiroshi Date, a thoracic surgeon at the hospital who led the operation, said at a news conference. “I think this is a treatment that gives hope for patients” with severe lung damage from Covid-19, he said.