World’s first lung transplant on patients with different blood types

Kyoto University Hospital has successfully conducted the world’s first live lung transplant involving two different blood types in mid-April this year.?

A young girl received a section of the lungs of her father with a blood type different from her own.?She developed obstructive bronchitis following bone marrow transplants for treating leukemia in her early childhood. The latest operation came after she became dependent on an artificial respirator last September.

As her physical size required two donors, parts of the lungs of her father and mother were transplanted in February this year. Medication to prevent her body from rejecting the transplant was administered. The girl and her mother have the same blood type, O, while her father’s blood type is B. Due to steroid therapy, the girl recovered from a rejection that followed the surgery. She no longer needs a respirator and she can walk by herself, according to the hospital.

With liver and kidney transplants, it’s common for living donors to have different blood types than that of the recipient. But lung transplants tend to cause rejection reactions more frequently. As a result, patients typically need to wait for lungs from a brain-dead donor with the same blood type.?

“This treatment may save the lives of patients who can’t find two donors with a compatible blood type,” said Professor Hiroshi Date, who conducted the operation.

(The Japan Times)