Living-donor lobar lung transplantation

Living-donor lobar lung transplantation (LDLLT) has become an important life-saving option for patients with severe respiratory disorders, since it was developed by a group in the University of Southern California in 1993 and introduced in Japan in 1998 in order to address the current severe shortage of brain-dead donor organs. Although LDLLT candidates were basically limited to critically ill patients who would require hospitalization, the long-term use of steroids, and/or mechanical respiratory support prior to transplantation, LDLLT provided good post-transplant outcomes, comparable to braindead donor lung transplantation in the early and late phases. In Kyoto University, the 5- and 10-year survival rates after LDLLT were reported to be 79.0% and 64.6%, respectively. LDLLT should be performed under appropriate circumstances, considering the inherent risk to the living donor. In our transplant program, all living donors returned to their previous social lives without any major complications, and living-donor surgery was associated with a morbidity rate of <15%. Both functional and anatomical size matching were preoperatively performed between the living-donor lobar grafts and recipients. Precise size matching before surgery could provide a favorable pulmonary function and exercise capacity after LDLLT. Various transplant procedures have recently been developed in LDLLT in order to deal with the issue of graft size mismatching in recipients, and favorable post-transplant outcomes have been observed. Native upper lobesparing and/or right-to-left inverted transplantation have been performed for undersized grafts, while singlelobe transplantation has been employed with or without contralateral pneumonectomy and/or delayed chest closure for oversized grafts.

Automated summary

LDLLT is a vital option for patients with severe respiratory disorders, developed to address the shortage of brain-dead donor organs. Precise size matching before surgery can lead to better post-transplant outcomes, with low risk to living donors. Various transplant procedures, such as native upper lobe sparing and single-lobe transplantation, have been developed in LDLLT to address issues of graft size mismatching and have shown favorable results.