Relative's experiences before and after a heart or lung transplantation

Relative's experiences before and after a heart or lung transplantation.

BACKGROUND Relatives take on great responsibilities during patients' heart or lung transplant process and an understanding for their situation is required. OBJECTIVE To describe relative's experiences before and during the patient's hospital stay as well as during the first 6 months after a heart or lung transplantation. METHODS Using qualitative content analysis, 15 relatives (eight women ...

WAITING FOR A HEART OR LUNG TRANSPLANT: RELATIVES’ EXPERIENCE OF INFORMATION AND SUPPORT Short title: Relatives’ experience of support before a heart or lung transplant

Endoscopic volume reduction before or after lung transplantation.

Endobronchial valve therapy in patients with severe emphysema achieves similar clinical benefits to lung volume reduction surgery without the potential morbidity. We report successful endobronchial valve treatments in two patients with severe emphysema. Valves were placed in the first patient 5 months before lung transplantation and in the second patient 10 years after lung transplantation, usi...

Advantages of the intrabreath technique as a measure of lung function before and after heart transplantation.

BACKGROUND Pulmonary function testing is an integral part of evaluating patients who are being considered for cardiac transplantation. The accurate measurement of diffusing capacity (DLCO) and alveolar volume (VA) is dependent on a 10-s breath-holding maneuver that may be difficult for patients with congestive heart failure to perform. The intrabreath (IB) technique is not dependent on a breath...

Clamshell or sternotomy for double lung or heart-lung transplantation?

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of either incision on the lungs and chest wall. METHODS Ninety-two double lung (DLT) or heart-lung (HLT) transplantations were done since January 1990. There were 22 (24%) hospital deaths, leaving 70 patients with complete data for evaluation. We did 38 DLT and 32 HLT for end-stage chronic respiratory failure (n = 22) and primary (n = 34) or secondary (n = ...