子供に肺の移植成功
これはとっておきの医学ニュースでした。お母さんの肺の一部を子供用に小さく切開し2歳の息子の肺に移植するという世界初の手術です。岡山大学でこの少年は4月に急性肺炎を起こし、8月には自己呼吸はおろか、人工呼吸器でも十分酸素を取り入れることができませんでした。最終手段として両肺の移植以外生存できる可能性がありませんでした。お母さんの左肺の下葉を子どもに合わせて機能できるよう切開しました。8月31日に移植を行い、現在子どもは自己呼吸しています。これは世界初の移植であり、さらに幼い幼児の移植にも希望が持てそうです。
This is breaking news for medical operations. Japanese doctors say that they have completed the world’s first live lung transplant which involved dividing a part of a mother’s lung into units small enough to keep functioning in her 2-year-old son’s body. Doctors at Okayama University HospitalBecause an adult’s lung would be too large for the toddler, the lower lobe of the mother’s left lung was divided into the smallest units possible for them to keep functioning.
Doctors say that they transplanted the segments on August 31st and that the boy is now breathing on his own.
The hospital reported that the transplant is the first in the world involving such small lung units and that the boy is Japan’s youngest lung transplant recipient to date.
The doctor who conducted the surgery, says that the transplant offers a ray of hope for even younger children needing lung transplants.
