What Is Lung Transplantation?

A lung transplant removes a person's diseased lung and replaces it with a healthy one. The healthy lung comes from a donor who has died. Some people get one lung during a transplant. Other people get two.

Lung transplants are used for people who are likely to die from lung disease within 1 to 2 years. Their conditions are so severe that other treatments, such as medicines or breathing devices, no longer work. Lung transplants most often are used to treat people who have severe:

• COPD
• Cystic fibrosis
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Pulmonary hypertension

Complications of lung transplantation include rejection of the transplanted lung and infection.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute