How successful are lung transplants? What are the risks of organ transplants?
Transplantation Surgery The transfer of organs or tissues from one individual to another often represents the sole possibility for survival of the recipient. The effectiveness of a transplant has been less dependent on surgical technique than on the quality of the donated organ and the biological reaction that it produces in the host. Each of us is a separate, distinct individual, and we don't permanently accept the tissue of others. In the evolution of concepts in transplantation doctors soon discovered that if a piece of skin from one individual was transferred to another person, it stayed viable for only a few days and then disintegrated a process called rejection. It is rather remarkable that in each of so many millions of people there can still be this absolute biologic specificity. It is this same reaction to foreign tissues that helps resist bacterial infection. Organ transplants are used only when they are required for survival (i.e., the kidney). In the latter re...