Damaged lungs could be made viable for transplantation

Clinicians and researchers at Newcastle University and NHS Foundation Trust are now working with device manufacturer Vivoline Medical to conduct a trial in patients.

‘Out of all the organs in the body the lungs are the most sensitive,’ said Prof Andrew Fisher of Newcastle. ‘Due to the events that happen leading up to the donor’s death — a major accident, or head injury — the lung picks up on that inflammatory environment very quickly and you flood alveoli spaces so that the gas-exchange capacity is not as good as it should be.’

Only one in five of the potential donor lungs available in the UK are used in lung transplants, the rest are turned down as they are in too poor a condition to safely transplant. Close to a third of those waiting for a lung transplant at any one time will never be matched with a donor organ, meaning that many patients who would benefit from a lung transplant will die before suitable donor lungs are identified.