Kyoto University Hospital Performs World’s 1st Live Lung, Liver Transplant

From Jiji

March 4 2024

KYOTO – Kyoto University Hospital in western Japan said Monday that it has performed the world’s first simultaneous lung and liver transplant from living donors. 

In the operation on Nov. 15 last year, a boy under the age of 10 with a genetic disorder received part of his parents’ lungs and part of his grandfather’s liver.

The boy, from the Kanto region in eastern Japan, is recovering well after the operation. He was able to walk without an oxygen tank two and a half months later, and he left the hospital and returned to his home on Friday. His parents and grandfather have also returned to social life.

There have been cases of simultaneous lung and liver transplants from brain-dead donors overseas, but no such cases in Japan due to a lack of such donors, according to the university hospital.

“We were able to open up a new therapeutic option for patients,” said Hiroshi Date, a professor at the university hospital who performed the operation.