If I were to get a lung transplant, would I still have asthma?
Author: Not like major surgery would be a desirable alternative to good asthma management, but more of a curiosity: suppose, for some medically viable reason, I got a lung transplant. Would I still have asthma? Is it something inherent to my lungs, or something about my immune system/body in general?
Along the same lines, suppose I went braindead and my family consented to donating my organs. Would whoever got my lungs have asthma, even if they didn’t before?
It depends on several things. If asthma is a disease of the lungs (rather than of the immune system or something), then yes, they’d get asthma. Of course, if that were true, they wouldn’t use them.
If, on the the other hand, it’s an immune system disorder (and they don’t seem to know for sure WHAT causes asthma), then you would still have asthma after you got new lungs.
Some cystic fibrosis kids get lung transplants, though, even though the cf will eventually damage the new ones. A few more years of breathing must be considered enough of a benefit to use them in such kids. If there is not a lot of demand for lungs, or heart/lungs, it seems a good use to me. If there were other people dying who could be saved to live a normal lifetime, I’m sure they’d be higher on the list. Lots and lots of people work together to come up with the best ways to use donated organs, and I’m sure they’ve gone over these things in great detail.
Are you an organ donor? Please, tell your health-care provider and your family your wishes.
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*******Edit: I was wrong about people with CF eventually devloping problems in transplanted lungs. The transplantation actually fixes the lung problems for them forever. Other things are still affected, but not the new lungs. Hooray!
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