Recently, Department of Thoracic Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) successfully carried out double lung transplantation under general anesthesia with spontaneous breathing (non-intubation), becoming the third lung transplantation center worldwide to carry out this procedure.
The 69-year-old patient, surnamed Kang, was diagnosed with "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" 11 years ago, and was untreated following multiple courses of drug treatment. Recently, he was admitted to Department of Thoracic Surgery of the FAH for effective medical treatment.
After the diagnosis by Professor Zhang Guangjian from Department of Thoracic Surgery, the patient had surgical indications of lung transplantation, and comprehensive preoperative evaluation was performed for lung transplantation. On November 24, 2024, he received a matched lung donor through China Organ Transplant Response System, and he was able to undergo lung transplantation.
Lung transplantation is the final option to rescue patients with end-stage respiratory diseases. Traditional lung transplantation requires tracheal intubation to maintain intraoperative breathing, which is likely to cause ventilator-related lung injury. At the same time, it is accompanied by sedation, muscle relaxation and other drugs for a long period of time, which increases perioperative risk. The relatively long postoperative recovery period brings risk to the body and mind of patients and their families. Some patients also experience slow recovery of lung function and require a long period of time for rehabilitation due to long-term ventilator use.
In this case, the lung transplantation team led by Professor Zhang Guangjian adopted double lung transplantation under general anesthesia with spontaneous breathing (non-intubation) after full preparation in the early stage. This innovative technology avoids tracheal intubation, which can precisely control the dosage of anesthesia, significantly reduces toxic and side effects caused by the use of analgesics, sedatives and muscle relaxant drugs. Patients can wake up immediately after surgery and communicate with their families, surgeons and nurses, which strengthens patients' confidence in rehabilitation and accelerates both the physical and psychological recovery.
At 4:15 am on November 25, the operation enduring for 6 h and 45 min was successfully completed.
Department of Thoracic Surgery becomes the third lung transplantation center worldwide to successfully perform lung transplantation under general anesthesia with spontaneous breathing, which signifies significant improvement in the lung transplantation technology of FAH and also demonstrates that this challenging medical technology has reached international advanced levels.
