Severance Hospital Holds Symposium Celebrating 500 Lung Transplant Cases

Severance Hospital announced on the 17th that it held the 'Yonsei Lung Transplant Academy' symposium at the Seoam Auditorium of Yonsei Cancer Hospital to commemorate the achievement of 500 lung transplants.

At this symposium, the journey and achievements of Severance Hospital's 500 lung transplants were reviewed, and issues and the latest trends in lung transplantation were shared.

The symposium was conducted in two sessions. In Session 1, seven lectures were given on topics such as "Lung Transplantation for Better Survival" and "Lung Transplantation Beyond Survival," including the weaknesses and outcomes of lung transplantation (Professor Jonathan Singer, University of California, San Francisco) and "Is it too old to transplant?" (Professor Woo Ara, Department of Pulmonology, Severance Hospital).

Professor Jin-gu Lee of the Department of Thoracic Surgery is delivering the opening address at the event.

In Session 2, ten lectures followed under the themes "The History of Lung Transplantation: Where Did It Begin?" and "Future Directions of Lung Transplantation."

Each topic was chaired by Professor Park Moo-seok of the Department of Pulmonology at Severance Hospital, Professor Kim Do-hyung of Thoracic Surgery at Yangsan Pusan National University Hospital, Professor Baek Hyo-chae of Thoracic Surgery at Myongji Hospital, and Professor Lee Jin-gu of Thoracic Surgery at Severance Hospital.

Severance Hospital has led lung transplant surgery since July 1996, when Professor Lee Doo-yeon of Thoracic Surgery performed the first lung transplant in Korea on a patient suffering from pulmonary fibrosis. Since then, the hospital has successfully performed the first bilateral lung re-transplant in December 2009, simultaneous lung transplantation and coronary artery bypass surgery in January 2015, and the world's first simultaneous brain-dead organ lung transplant and living-donor liver transplant in May, leading the development of lung transplantation in Korea.

Continuously performing lung transplant surgeries, Severance Hospital reached 300 cases in May 2019 and 400 cases in July 2021. This May, it successfully performed surgery on a male patient in his 60s suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, achieving the first 500 lung transplant surgeries at a single institution in Korea. The last patient was the 518th case, transplanted due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Despite a significant size difference between the donor's and recipient's lungs, the transplant was successfully completed thanks to accumulated experience and expertise.

Professor Lee Jin-gu of Thoracic Surgery at Severance Hospital said, "We are pleased to hold a symposium where we could deeply consider the field of lung transplantation together with speakers from various domestic and international institutions," adding, "I hope this symposium will contribute to further development of the lung transplantation field in Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.