Japan boy gets partial lung transplant from mother
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Part of a Japanese woman's lung was transplanted to her three-year-old son Monday in what was described as the world's first successful graft of a middle lobe from a living donor, a hospital said.
Lung transplants from living donors usually involve transferring the inferior lobe which has greater breathing capacity.
But a middle lobe was transplanted in this case as it is smaller than an inferior lobe and is of the right size for the boy, the Okayama University Hospital said.
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The boy and his mother were not identified.
The transplant of a middle lobe is seen as difficult, said the university in western Japan.
"A pump-oxygenator was detached from the recipient and he started breathing with the transplanted part of the lung," the hospital said in a statement.
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"We deem that the operation has been successful," it said.
The hospital had previously said that a successful operation would be the first of its kind in the world.
The surgery started at 1:35 pm and the boy started breathing with the transplanted lung about five hours later, the statement said.
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The boy is the youngest lung recipient in Japan, the hospital said.
He underwent a bone-marrow transplant for leukaemia about two years ago but later developed graft-versus-host disease, a complication in which the newly transplanted material attacks the recipient's body, Kyodo News said.
Takahiro Oto, associate professor of respiratory surgery at the state-run university hospital, said the transplant of a middle lobe would pave the way for saving the lives of babies who have not been able to undergo other types of lung transplant, Kyodo reported.