3-D Printed Lung Assists in Opposite-Lung Transplant

In yet another 3-D printing first, doctors at Kyoto University Hospital (Kyoto, Japan) have used the technology as an assist in a ground-breaking surgery wherein a portion of the donor's right lung was implanted on the patient's left side.

Interstitial pneumonia. a pulmonary inflammation of the tissue and spaces around the air sacs of the lungs, had left a woman in her 40s suffering from fibrosis of lung tissue in which the lung tissue had become scarred, stiff, and very thick. The function of her left lung had declined to half that of her right lung - so much that a transplant was required.

In a normal lung transplant, the anatomy of the donor lung will match up with that of the patient. Although the woman's husband was a good tissue match, the doctors deemed his left lung was too small to be safely transplanted into the patient. Previously this meant that the patient would have to wait for another donor.

Instead, the surgeons decided to perform a groundbreaking new surgery in which they would transplant the lower part of the husband's right lung onto the bottom of the patient's left lung. This meant that the bronchi and blood vessels were reversed and the donor tissues would have to be rotated.

The 3-D printer was used to print out a model of the patient's chest cavity along with the piece of lung from the donor. The surgeons were then able to rehearse the very complicated surgery on the models, gaining valuable practice and insight into what would be necessary before performing the actual procedure. The operation was reportedly a success, and both patient and donor are recovering well.

"The existence of the option of implanting the right lung in the left lung will enable more patients to undergo transplantation," Hiroshi Date, MD, PhD, pulmonologist and professor in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kyoto University, told Akiyoshi Abe in an article in the Asahi Shimbun.

Stephen Levy is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.