Belarus performs world’s second sublobar lung autotransplantation

        A unique sublobar lung transplant surgery has been performed at the thoracic surgery and lung transplantation department of the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Center of Belarus, we learnt from chief of the department Sergei Yeskov.
        “This is a landmark event. We have been the second in the world to conduct this surgery. The first one was reported to be performed by Japanese surgeons in March 2012,” Sergei Yeskov said. The surgery took place on 1 February. The patient was a 58-year old man. The surgery lasted about six hours. It was conducted by a team of nine specialists of the center. The patient’s condition is satisfactory.
           Belarus’ first thoracic surgery and lung transplantation department opened in Minsk Teaching Hospital No. 9 in November 2012. The major objectives of the department are to assimilate new technologies, develop a nation-wide lung transplantation program, and conduct surgeries to transplant lungs. The first lung transplant surgery is to be conducted here in the first half of 2013. The center examines patients who need transplant surgeries and puts them on the waiting list. Every year about 50 people need lung transplantation in Belarus.