Kyoto University Hospital announced on Monday that it had performed the world’s first simultaneous lung and liver transplant from a living donor.
In an operation on November 15 last year, a boy under the age of 10 with a genetic disorder received part of his parents’ lungs and part of his grandfather’s liver.
The boy, who lives in the Kanto region, is recovering well after surgery. After two and a half months, he was able to walk without oxygen and was discharged from the hospital and returned to his home on Friday. His parents and grandfather also returned to socializing.
According to the university hospital, there are cases of simultaneous lung and liver transplants from brain-dead donors overseas, but there is no such case in Japan due to a lack of donors.
Professor Hiroshi Date of the university hospital, who performed the surgery, said, “We were able to open up a new treatment option for patients.”
The boy who underwent surgery was diagnosed with dyskeratosis congenita. He developed aplastic anemia at the age of two and received a bone marrow transplant from his sister at the age of four.
Later, he developed cirrhosis of the liver, which caused the arteries and veins in his lungs to become connected, making it impossible for him to get oxygen. Therefore, he required both lung and liver transplants.
