Lung Transplant Procedures & Surgeries
Your Mayo Clinic lung transplant team uses what they learn during your evaluation to determine which surgical approach may be right for you. Your care plan reflects your lung disease, overall health, donor options, and which approach offers the best balance of benefit and safety.
As you make a plan, your surgeon will explain the recommended approach, why it may be right for your situation, and what you can expect from surgery.
Start with the full picture.
Your Mayo Clinic team reviews your medical records, imaging, pulmonary function tests, heart testing, lab results, medication history, prior procedures, and current symptoms. In many cases, this review can happen before you set foot on campus for a lung transplant evaluation. This helps you and your team start your care with the same foundation.
Answer two important questions.
Your evaluation helps your team answer two separate questions:
- Is a lung transplant appropriate for you?
- If it is, which transplant approach offers the best balance of expected benefit and safety?
Sometimes another procedure, treatment, or medical preparation may need to come first. Donor options can also affect your transplant plan and the approach your team recommends.
Bring in expertise when needed.
Some health concerns can make transplant planning more complex, including:
- Coronary artery disease
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Advanced heart disease or other organ concerns
- Infection risk
- Critical illness
Mayo Clinic is the largest integrated transplant provider in the U.S. When your situation requires additional expertise, specialists from across Mayo Clinic work together to understand how these concerns affect your options. In some situations, multiorgan transplant expertise may be part of the discussion.
Get personalized care for your lung transplant needs.
Dr. D'Cuhna (00:03):
Breathing is a fundamental thing we do 16 to 20 times a minute. We don't even think about it. And there are people out there who have to think about, "Should I talk or should I breathe?"
Dr. Kennedy (00:12):
When people are considering lung transplant, they wonder what would be the best transplant center for them. Mayo Clinic is one of the leading facilities in the country for the diagnosis and treatment of lung disease.
Dr. D'Cuhna (00:26):
The difference maker at Mayo Clinic is the interdisciplinary care that we provide. And the time you walk in the door, you're part of a care team who all come together and take care of your complex disease seamlessly and in a coordinated fashion.
Dr. Baz (00:39):
We're always thinking not only of the disease, but of the person and family behind the disease. And we're trying to be holistic in our approach.
Dr. Kennedy (00:46):
Patients understand we are tailoring our care to them as an individual as we are getting the results from the testing. We're explaining how that testing result might affect both their ability to go through transplant and the success of their transplant.
Dr. D'Cuhna (01:01):
And it's very important that we as medical providers, physicians, surgeons, understand where they're at in their journey, tailor and personalize our care to alleviate their anxiety.
Dr. Baz (01:12):
The patient can trust that the issue at hand is looked at 360 from all different avenues.
Dr. Kennedy (01:19):
They don't have one pulmonologist. They have a team of pulmonologists who are meeting every week to hear updates on their case. Regardless of when they get sick or when they get a transplant offer and who's on call, that team is gonna know them, know their case, and be ready to step in and take care of them. It's never one provider's decision of you are a candidate, you're not a candidate. The whole committee decides and weighs whether transplant is in your best interest.
Dr. Baz (01:48):
One of the things that makes Mayo Clinic different is that there's three sites. Every month we get to discuss cases among the three centers and come up with the best idea. It's what I call cross-pollination that always makes us better. We have a team of people in the transplant center that goes about scheduling things as efficiently as possible so that patients aren't spending an inordinate amount of time away from home.
Dr. D'Cuhna (02:11):
The patient experience at Mayo Clinic is unparalleled. When someone comes with a complex disease or complex problem, you're gonna get the best possible individualized care to provide you that hope that you need.
Explore lung transplant care at Mayo Clinic.
