• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.265-273
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• 2022

Lung transplantation is considered a viable treatment option for patients with end-stage lung disease. Recent decades have seen a gradual increase in the number of lung transplantation patients worldwide, and in South Korea, the case number has increased at least 3-fold during the last decade. Furthermore, the waiting list time is becoming longer, and more elderly patients (>65 years) are undergoing lung transplantation; that is, the patients placed on the waiting list are older and sicker than in the past. Hence, proper management during the pre-transplantation period, as well as careful selection of candidates, is a key factor for transplant success and patient survival. Although referring and transplant centers should address many issues, the main areas of focus should be the timing of referral, nutrition, pulmonary rehabilitation, critical care (including mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), psychological support, and the management of preexisting comorbid conditions (coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, gastroesophageal reflux disease, osteoporosis, malignancy, viral infections, and chronic infections). In this context, the present article reviews and summarizes the pre-transplantation management strategies for adult patients listed for lung transplantation.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2016

Background: Heart-lung transplantation (HLT) has provided hope to patients with end-stage lung disease and irreversible heart dysfunction. We reviewed the clinical outcomes of 10 patients who underwent heart-lung transplantation at Asan Medical Center. Methods: Between July 2010 and August 2014, a total of 11 patients underwent HLT at Asan Medical Center. After excluding one patient who underwent concomitant liver transplantation, 10 patients were enrolled in our study. We reviewed the demographics of the donors and the recipients' baseline information, survival rate, cause of death, and postoperative complications. All patients underwent follow-up, with a mean duration of $26.1{\pm}16.7months$. Results: Early death occurred in two patients (20%) due to septic shock. Late death occurred in three patients (38%) due to bronchiolitis obliterans (n=2) and septic shock (n=1), although these patients survived for 22, 28, and 42 months, respectively. The actuarial survival rates at one year, two years, and three years after HLT were 80%, 67%, and 53%, respectively. Conclusion: HLT is a procedure that is rarely performed in Korea, even in medical centers with large heart and lung transplant programs. In order to achieve acceptable clinical outcomes, it is critical to carefully choose the donor and the recipient and to be certain that all aspects of the transplant procedure are planned in advance with the greatest care.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.64-67
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• 2002

Eisenmenger's syndrome is the disease of right to left shunt developing from the increased pulmonary vascular resistance caused by excessive pulmonary blood flow in patients with abnormal connections of systemic to pulmonary blood passage. The heart-lung transplantation was the only curative method in early transplantation period, but good results after bilateral lung transplantation have been reported as the fact that right heart function improved by only lung transplantation. We successfully carried out bilateral sequential single lung transplantation in a 34-year-old female patient with Eisenmenger's syndrome with large PDA. We report this case with a brief review of the literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.418-421
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• 2003

Heart-lung transplantation is a widely accepted treatment for Eisenmenger'syndrome. The patient is a 41-years-old male diagnosed with Eisenmenger'syndrome due to patent ductus arteriosus. The pressures were checked as follows: aorta 130/80 mean 100 mmHg, pulmonary artery 130/80 mean 109 mmHg, and right ventricle 130/20 mmHg, right atrium mean 20 mmHg. The patient needed heart-lung transplantation due to enlarged right pulmonary artery (diameter 7.5 cm). The donor was a 24 years-old male diagnosed as brain death due to subdural hematoma. Ligation of patent ductus arteriosus was performed under the cardiopulmonary bypass followed by heart-lung transplantation. Patient was extubated on postoperative day one, transferred to the general ward on day 3, and was discharged on postoperative day 33. Cardiac and lung biopsy was performed on postoperative day 41 with no signs of rejection.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.255-264
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• 2022

Globally, thousands of patients undergo lung transplantation owing to end-stage lung disease each year. As lung transplantation evolves, recommendations and indications are constantly being updated. In 2021, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation published a new consensus document for selecting candidates for lung transplantation. However, it is still difficult to determine appropriate candidates for lung transplantation among patients with complex medical conditions and various diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze each patient's overall situation and medical condition from various perspectives, and ongoing efforts to optimize the analysis will be necessary. The purpose of this study is to review the extant literature and discuss recent updates.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.319-324
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• 2022

Although organ transplants have become quite common, combined heart-lung transplantation (CHLTx) is unfamiliar at most institutions. While the remarkable rate of development in treatment options, such as drugs and mechanical circulatory support, have reduced the need for CHLTx, it remains the sole treatment option for a subset of patients with end-stage cardiopulmonary failure. For many cardiothoracic surgeons, CHLTx is not technically new or difficult, but it does pose challenges due to its low frequency and relative complexity. Thus, this review aims to describe the CHLTx technique in technical detail using the existing literature.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.49-59
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• 2021

Since the initial International Society of Heart Lung Transplantation registry was published in 1982, the number of pediatric heart transplantations has increased markedly, reaching a steady state of 500-550 transplantation annually and occupying up to 10% of total heart transplantations. Heart transplantation is considered an established therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart disease. The long-term outcomes of pediatric heart transplantations were comparable to those of adults. Issues affecting long-term outcomes include acute cellular rejection, antibody-mediated rejection, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, infection, prolonged renal dysfunction, and malignancies such as posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder. This article focuses on medical issues before pediatric heart transplantation, according to the Korean Network of Organ Sharing registry and as well as major problems such as graft rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. To reduce graft failure rate and improve long-term outcomes, meticulous monitoring for rejection and medication compliance are also important, especially in adolescents.

• Acute and Critical Care
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.206-215
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• 2018

Since the first successful lung transplantation in 1983, there have been many advances in the field. Nevertheless, the latest data from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation revealed that the risk of death from transplantation is 9%. Various aspects of postoperative management, including mechanical ventilation, could affect intensive care unit stay, hospital stay, and immediate postoperative morbidity and mortality. Complications such as reperfusion injury, graft rejection, infection, and dehiscence of anastomosis increase fatal adverse side effects immediately after surgery. In this article, we review the possible immediate complications after lung transplantation and summarize current knowledge on prevention and treatment.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.396-399
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• 2021

A 58-year-old man, incapable of maintaining oxygen saturation with mechanical ventilation, was admitted to our hospital for veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment. He was diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) due to influenza A pneumonia. His condition stabilized with antibiotics and steroid administration, but weaning from ECMO failed due to post-infectious pulmonary sequelae. On day 84 after admission, he underwent bilateral lung transplantation. In the postoperative phase, he did not regain consciousness even after discontinuation of sedatives for 3 days. However, spontaneous pupillary reflex and eye movements were preserved, while communication and upper and lower limb movements were affected. The nerve conduction study was diagnostic of Guillain-Barré syndrome. He was managed with intravenous immunoglobulins and plasmapheresis. Mild recovery of the facial muscles was seen, but he died 24 days post-surgery due to progressive ARDS and sepsis.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.88-95
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• 2000

Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a chronic destruct8ive disease of the lung affecting women of childbearing ages which eventually leads to respiratory failure. Lung transplantation is the only conclusive therapeutic measure because this disease responds poorly to other therapies, To date only a few reports in the literature describes the clinical experience of the bilateral sequential lung transplantation of this rare condition. We performed a bilateral sequential lung transplantation on a 32-year-old woman suffering from lymphangioleiomyo-matosisw. The heart-lung block was harvested from a 51-year-old donor. We transplanted the left lung first through the clam-shell incision. As the hemodynamics deteriorated suddenly during the dissection of the right lung the right lung was transplanted under the cardio-pulmonary bypass. Although the patient's lung function was initially satisfactory the patient died of sepsis and subsequent cardiogenic shock at the postoperative 18th day. Autopsy findings showed infection of Candida albicans on the pericardium and the left lung which had been initiated possibly from the left bronchial anastomosis site,. Through detailed review of the clinical course we concluded that lung transplantation could have been performed safely on this disease provided that early diagnosis and proper management or the oppor-tunistic infection have been carried out.