Type of Surgery
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Last updated: 11/24/2009
Systemic hypertension is common in almost half the patients at one year after surgery and can be relieved with medical treatment. Chronic bronchiolitis is expected in one-third of patients at five years. Hyperlipidemia (high lipid concentration in...
blood), diabetes mellitus, and kidney dysfunction are also seen in some patients within the first year of transplantation and continue to affect an increasing number of patients each year. Malignancies that include lymphoma and lip and skin tumors are seen at a higher rate than in general populations.
Death within the first 30 days is usually associated with technical and graft failure of the transplanted organ. Rejection of the cardiac organ includes chronic coronary artery disease affecting a small percentage of patients, while bronchiolitis (inflammation caused by rejection of the lung) is responsible for the death of 60% of patients between the first and fifth years. Untreatable infections are a persistent complication in the initial 30 days and continue to affect patients into the fifth year, and result in death. Acute rejection is uncommon, but it is a complication that can also lead to death.
Five-year mortality is higher for patients with ventilator dependence, retransplantation, congenital disease, and in recipients over 60 years of age.
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The animated video, narrated by a physician, describes the two main types of stroke: ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Ischemic strokes are further subdivided into thrombotic strokes and embolic strokes while hemorrhagic strokes are classified into subarachnoid hemorrhage and intracerebral hemorrhage. The location of the stroke in the brain directly influences the kind and degree of neurological deficit, which is discussed.
Chest is opened to expose the diseased heart and lung to be removed (A). Heart and lung function is taken over by a heart-lung machine. Major blood vessels are severed, and the heart is removed (B). Bronchus and blood vessels leading to the lung are severed, and the lung is removed (C). Donor heart and lung are placed in the patient's the chest cavity (D). They are sutured to their appropriate connections, and the heart is restarted before the patient is taken off the heart-lung machine (E). (Illustration by GGS Inc.)
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A heart-lung transplant is a procedure carried out to replace both heart and lungs in a single operation. Due to a shortage of suitable donors, it is a rare procedure; only about a hundred such transplants are performed each year in the USA.
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