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Wednesday, 3rd July 2013
In General Japan News,

Boy receives mother's lung in first ever operation of its kind

Okayama University Hospital has hit the headlines as the first institution to carry out an operation to transplant part of a mother's lung to her three-year-old child.

The hospital hailed the operation a success, and said that the unnamed recipient of the organ was in a stable condition.

It was necessary to perform the procedure as the boy had experienced difficulties with his lung capacity following a bone-marrow transplant that he had to undergo as a result of leukaemia.

Although lung transplants from living donors have been performed before, they normally involve taking the inferior lobe. This was not considered an option in this particular case as it would be too large for the boy.

Instead, the so-called middle lobe was transplanted which provided a better fit for the patient.

The hospital said: "A pump-oxygenator was detached from the recipient and he started breathing with the transplanted part of the lung."

Written by Graham McPherson