Loyola marks 500th Lung Transplant
Robert B. Love, MD, professor, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, announces Loyola’s 500th lung transplant at a September press conference.
Loyola University Health System has performed its 500th lung transplant operation. The surgery, a double-lung procedure, was performed Aug. 12 on a 58-year-old father of three from Joliet, who has pulmonary fibrosis.
In 1988, cardiothoracic surgeon Mamdouh Bakhos, MD, performed the center’s—and the state’s—first lung transplant surgery on a 22-year-old patient with bronciectasis.
Today, Loyola’s program is one of the largest and most successful in the nation, with a three-year survival rate of 76 percent—10 percent higher than national averages.
“We believe we’ve found just the right combination of talent, technique, and teamwork,” says transplant program director Charles Alex, MD, professor of medicine, pulmonary and critical care. “We have the most experienced team in the region.”
No other medical center in the area has made the same commitment to lung transplantation that Loyola has. In its most recent quarterly update, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), www.ustransplant.org, reports that beyond Loyola, only six other centers in the United States have done 500 lung transplantations.