Paris (AFP)
A lung transplant on a patient who presented with acute respiratory failure due to the Covid-19 virus was performed on November 1 at the Foch hospital in Suresnes (Hauts-de -Seine), according to which it is the first in France .
The patient, initially taken care of in the intensive care unit of Prof. Sébastien Préau at the Lille University Hospital, had developed an extremely serious form of respiratory damage responsible for "almost complete destruction of his two lungs", indicates the establishment of the Paris region in a press release.
Despite optimal care for several weeks at his home center, the patient's condition showed no signs of improvement, making a lung transplant necessary.
"The choice to have recourse to this ultimate and exceptional therapy is not simple and is subject to the results of numerous complementary examinations", indicates Professor Edouard Sage, head of the lung transplant program at Foch hospital, cited in the press release.
"The objective of these latter is to detect the potential contraindications which would cause the failure of this heavy program," he underlines.
This "first lung transplant in France" for a Covid patient went perfectly.
"However, we must remain cautious, because the recovery of a lung transplant patient is often long and sometimes difficult", according to the specialist.
The Foch hospital had performed its 1000th lung transplant on May 14.
In June, Northwestern Hospital in Chicago in the United States announced that it had performed the first American double lung transplant on a Covid patient.
It was a woman in her twenties, previously in good health, whose lungs had been "irreversibly" destroyed by the Covid-19.
The operation lasted 10 hours.
It was the first such transplant in the United States, but not in the world, with Chinese doctors performing a double transplant in March on a woman in her sixties.
© 2020 AFP