Doctors in Japan perform world's first living donor lung transplant to COVID-19 patient

A team of Japanese doctors has performed the world's first-ever living donor lung transplant to a COVID-19 patient.

The patient's lungs had been severely damaged after she contracted COVID-19 and she had to undergo an 11-hour surgery, that was done by a 30-strong medical team from Kyoto University Hospital on 7 April, according to a CNN report.

The team of doctors transplanted lung tissue from the patient's husband and son and the two men are reportedly in 'stable condtion' following the life-saving surgery.

The husband donated a part of his left lung and the son donated a part of his right.

Kyoto University Hospital said this was the first-ever case in which lung tissue was transplanted from living donors to a coronavirus patient.

The woman will need two months to recover, following which she will be able to resume her normal routine. Even before the surgery, she had been on life support for several months.

The patient had contracted the deadly virus late last year, following which she was kept on life support that worked as an artificial lung, said Kyoto University Hospital.

The hospital added that transplants from brain-dead donors are rare in Japan as love donors are considered a better option.

Dr Hiroshi Date, the thoracic surgeon who led the operation, said the procedure has given hope to patients who are suffering from lung damage after contracting COVID-19.

"We demonstrated that we now have an option of lung transplants (from living donors)," he said at a news conference on Thursday.

Lung damage caused by COVID-19 has become very common in the past year. Dozens of surgeries have been carried out in the US, Europe, and CHine where transplants of part of the lungs have been taken from brain-dead donors.

In June 2020, doctors in the US performed a successful double lung transplant on a COVID-19 patient.