How common are heart-lung transplants?
In the UK, heart-lung transplants are rarely performed, with an average of nine transplants being carried out each year. This is due to the fact that the availability of suitable donors is severely limited. The two main reasons for this are discussed below. Firstly, most donated hearts are taken from people who are brain dead. Although there is no activity in their brain, and they are legally dead, a ventilator can be used to keep their heart beating, and oxygen circulating through their blood. However, the prolonged use of a ventilator can damage the lungs and make them unsuitable for transplant. The second problem is that lung tissue rapidly deteriorates once it has been removed from the body. Therefore, a successful donation is only usually possible if the transplant is carried out within 4-6 hours of the lungs being removed from the donor. This means that a successful donation can only go ahead if the donor and recipient of the transplant are in relatively close geographical proxim
