Hanoi (VNA) – The National Lung Hospital announced on November 11 that, in a single day, it successfully performed two lung transplants in coordination with leading specialists and major hospitals.
The hospitals included the National Coordination Centre for Organ Transplantation, E Hospital, Medical and Pharmaceutical University Hospital – Vietnam National University - Hanoi, 108 Military Central Hospital, Cho Ray Hospital, and Ba Ria General Hospital.
According to Dr. Dinh Van Luong, Director of the National Lung Hospital, this is the first time in Vietnam that two lung transplants have been successfully completed within one day.
All transplants conducted by the hospital have to date met the highest standards of the UCSF Lung Transplant Centre at the University of California, San Francisco, one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the United States.
The latest achievements bring the hospital’s total number of successful lung transplants to nine, placing Vietnam among the world’s leading lung-transplant centres.
This milestone further strengthens Vietnam’s accomplishments in organ transplantation, marking a breakthrough for the country’s medical sector and demonstrating the comprehensive capacity of the National Lung Hospital in collaboration with top medical facilities nationwide.
On the afternoon of November 9, lungs donated by a 55-year-old male military officer were transplanted into a 48-year-old female patient. The procedure involved dozens of specialists, surgeons and medical staff and lasted more than eight hours.
The female patient had type-2 diabetes and was diagnosed in 2023 with extensive pulmonary damage, including severe emphysema with multiple bullae and recurrent pneumothorax. She underwent pleurodesis in July 2024 at the National Lung Hospital and was subsequently placed on the transplant waiting list. As her lung function continued to deteriorate, transplantation became her only chance of survival.
Following the operation, she is being cared for at the hospital’s Lung Transplant Centre. She has been extubated and is breathing independently with her new lung.
Also on November 9, the hospital received lungs transported by air from the Ba Ria General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. That was the second time a donor lung had been coordinated, transported and preserved under strict conditions “from South to North” for an overnight transplant. The procedure marked another “trans-Vietnam” lung-transplant case.
After a six-hour journey, the lungs of a 32-year-old male donor arrived at the hospital at 9 pm the same evening and were transplanted into a 48-year-old male patient. The surgical teams worked through the night, with the procedure lasting nine hours until early November 10.
The recipient suffered from long-standing COPD and pulmonary bullae and had been on the transplant waiting list since 2022. His condition was complicated by multiple severe comorbidities, including invasive pulmonary fungal infection, adrenal insufficiency, vertebral collapse treated with vertebral cement injection, and chronic hypertension. In February 2024, he was also diagnosed with diabetes. He had been dependent on home oxygen for two years and was at high risk of mortality.
Post-transplant, he is receiving intensive care and showing positive progress.
According to Dr. Luong, both transplant recipients had long been managed and monitored at the National Lung Hospital while awaiting suitable donors. As soon as organs from brain-dead donors were identified, the hospital convened expert consultations and mobilised its full network of leading specialists across disciplines to ensure rapid coordination and optimal outcomes.
The hospital is currently developing a regional Lung Transplant Centre, with the goal not only of serving patients in Vietnam and neighbouring countries but also of transferring expertise and advancing lung-transplant techniques to levels comparable with developed nations, solidifying Vietnam’s presence on the global lung-transplant map./.
