A woman in her mid 50s has successfully undergone the first lung-transplant procedure undertaken in the Republic. The operation took place in the early hours of yesterday morning at the National Heart/Lung Transplant Unit in the Mater hospital, Dublin.
The patient, who is understood to be 55 years old, was waiting a number of months for a suitable donor lung to become available. She is suffering from emphysema, a condition in which the lungs become hyperinflated and lose their normal elasticity, leading to severe breathing problems. It is the commonest condition for which a lung transplant is required.
The Irish Times understands that the donor lung was transplanted from a patient who died in Beaumont Hospital. The operation to transplant the lung began at 9pm on Wednesday evening with the harvesting by the specialist team of a single lung from the donor. The transplant operation, which involved placing a left lung in the recipient, commenced at around midnight and concluded some three and a half hours later.
The woman is now in intensive care. Medical sources at the hospital said they were cautiously optimistic about her prognosis but emphasised that the first 72 hours following the operation would be a crucial time.
The transplant was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team at the Mater, led by Dr Jim Egan, consultant respiratory physician and lead transplant physician, and Mr Freddie Wood and Mr Jim McCarthy, cardiothoracic surgeons. They were assisted by nurses, cardiac and perfusion technicians and anaesthetists.
A high dependency facility in the Mater's lung transplant unit was officially opened in March 2004 and has been fully operational since October. The transplant team had undertaken a number of "harvesting runs" for potentially suitable organs over the last six months. However, none of these were found to be suitable.
Yesterday's successful transplant will mean that the State will be less dependent on the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, where these operations have taken place to date.
The arrangement with the British hospital will remain until additional theatre capacity is made available at the Mater. The hospital is awaiting approval for phase three of the heart and lung unit to go ahead before a full repatriation of the lung-transplant programme from the UK can take place.
At present the unit has the capacity to perform up to 15 heart transplants a year and up to five lung transplants. It is envisaged however, that when the new unit is fully operational, 15 lung transplants and 24 heart transplants could be carried out annually.