The Other Lung

Abstract

Any physician who has had the sad task of caring for a patient suffering from advanced pulmonary emphysema must on occasion have wished that human-lung transplantation could offer some hope to these unfortunate patients. In the present issue, Dr. Paul Stevens and his colleagues from Houston, Texas, report upon lung transplantation attempted in two men, 37 and 39 years of age, whose severe panlobular emphysema appeared to be a consequence of a deficiency in serum α₁, antitrypsin, the syndrome described in 1965 by Eriksson.¹ Two other young men on whom this procedure has been attempted were both suffering . . .