Lung Transplant Program

Lung transplant patient with nurse

Your Mayo Clinic team helps you through the entire lung transplant process.

Mayo Clinic doctors have experience treating people with coronary artery disease and other complex conditions with lung transplants or other treatment options. Doctors trained in lung and breathing conditions (pulmonologists) work closely with doctors trained in heart and blood vessel conditions (cardiologists), heart and blood vessel surgery (cardiac surgeons), and other areas to determine the most appropriate treatment for you.

In the past, most people with coronary artery disease weren't considered candidates for a lung transplant. Now, some people with coronary artery disease may be eligible for a single-lung transplant, a double-lung transplant, a heart-lung transplant or another procedure.

Your doctor will use cardiac catheterization to evaluate the severity of your heart condition and determine if you're eligible for a lung transplant. In this procedure, your doctor inserts a long, thin tube (catheter) into an artery in your leg or groin and guides it to your heart using X-ray imaging. He or she then injects a special dye through the catheter, making the arteries visible under X-ray (coronary angiography).

Depending on your condition, your doctor may conduct procedures to open blocked or narrowed arteries, including coronary bypass surgery or coronary angioplasty and stents. These procedures may be performed before or during lung transplant surgery.

Doctors continue to study outcomes of people with coronary artery disease who have had lung transplants, to determine the most appropriate treatment for them.