Clinical lung transplantation--current status.

Abstract

Since 1983, lung transplantation has enjoyed increasing success and has become the mainstay of therapy for most end-stage lung diseases. While the first decade of clinical lung transplantation focused on technical details of the transplant procedure, the second decade was characterized by improvements in techniques of lung preservation and in the postoperative management. This review will focus on the recent improvements made in lung preservation and postoperative management.