Using lung transplants from heavy smokers may sound like a cruel joke, but a new study finds that organs taken from people who puffed a pack a day for more than 20 years are likely safe.
What's more, the analysis of lung transplant data from the U.S. between 2005 and 2011 confirms what transplant experts say they already know: For some patients on a crowded organ waiting list, lungs from smokers are better than none.
"I think people are grateful just to have a shot at getting lungs," said Dr. Sharven Taghavi, a cardiovascular surgical resident at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, who led the new study.
Surprisingly, however, organ recipients who do get smokers' lungs often learn about it only afterward -- if at all, experts say.
"If someone had a transplant and after the transplant they say, 'What can you tell me about the donor?' there are a limited number of characteristics we can tell them," said Dr. Ramsey Hachem, a pulmonologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "We don't do that routinely before."
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