Five weeks after surgeons transplanted a donor's lung into 20-year-old Xu Danqiong in what was the country's first transplant of a lung among non-blood relatives, the patient is breathing well, doctors at the Shanghai Chest Hospital said.
"The operation was quite risky because the patient was in a terrible physical condition and the donor's lung size didn't match her, but we made it," said professor Gao Chengxin, chief surgeon of the transplant.
Xu suffered from a rare and serious disease called lymphangial leiomyoma in both lungs for several years. She weighed less than 40 kilograms before operation, doctors said.
At the time of the operation, Xu had lost the function of both of her lungs. Doctors determined that the only way to save her was organ transplant.
It took them five hours to cut the donated lung to size because it was twice as large as Xu's lung.
Surgeons had to cut the upper lobe of the lung and reworked the other lobes to make it the right size for Xu's body.
Six days after the transplant, Xu was able to breathe without machines.
She has also surpassed the most dangerous one-month period after the operation when bleeding, blood shortage to the lung, organ rejection and infection are most likely to occur.
"Right now, she has recovered well and her right lung is working well to support her," Gao said.
Lung transplants are the most difficult and risky kinds of organ transplants. The first lung transplant was performed in Canada in 1983.
(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2002)
