Lung transplantation.

Over the past 20 years, many advances in surgical methods, transplantation immunology, donor organ procurement and preservation techniques, and postsurgical care regimens have influenced greatly the field of lung transplantation. The single remaining obstacle to widespread clinical success is donor lung availability. Improved methods of ex vivo lung preservation, organ donor maintenance, and donor lung retrieval after the completion of cardiac donation should help to ameliorate this problem.