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LONDON – Patients who need new lungs are better off getting donated organsfrom smokers than none at all, even though they probably won't liveas long as those who get a lung transplant from a nonsmoker, a newstudy says. Researchers say patients will survive longer if they are willing toaccept lungs from anyone, including smokers. In Britain, that's akey issue, for about 40 percent of donated lungs come from peoplewho have previously smoked. Yet in recent years, several cases of British patients dying aftergetting lungs from smokers have sparked calls for the policy to beoverhauled. Doctors behind the new study said changing the U.K. transplantsystem would be wrong and lead to a spike in the number of peopledying while waiting for donated lungs. "That could deny patients the opportunity to get help," said Dr.James Neuberger, associate medical director of the Queen ElizabethHospital in Birmingham and one of the study's authors. Neuberger and colleagues analyzed information from the U.K.Transplant Registry and the Office of National Statistics on thesurvival rates of 2,181 adult British patients waiting for lungtransplants between 1999 and 2010. About 2 in 5 of thosetransplants came from smokers. They found that patients who got lungs from smokers were about 46percent more likely to die within three years after getting thereplacement lungs compared to patients who got the organs fromnon-smokers. But they had a 21 percent lower chance of dying versuspeople who were still on the waiting list. The research waspublished online Tuesday in the journal, Lancet. In the U.S., doctors also use lungs from smokers, although Dr.Norman Edelman, the chief medical officer for the American LungAssociation, didn't have any data on how often that happens. TheU.S. and the U.K. have similar overall smoking rates of about 20percent. Some experts said it wasn't realistic to expect organ donor systemsto refuse lungs from smokers because the demand is such that nearlyevery usable lung is transplanted. The key issues in lungtransplants involve the size of the lung and the donor's bloodtype, which must match the recipients. "There is rarely an 'ideal' organ available," He said most organshave defects based on factors like underlying disease or the ageand circumstances of the donor's death. "A smoker donor is really just one more factor to consider," hesaid in an email. In the U.K., advocates have called for patients to be given moreinformation about organ donors before accepting a transplant. In2010, the family of a 28-year-old woman with cystic fibrosis lodgeda complaint when she died a year after getting lungs from someonewho had smoked for three decades. They said she had not been toldand would have been horrified to get a smoker's lungs. Neuberger said patients had the right to refuse lungs from smokersas long as they understood the implications. "I'd rather take the lungs from a smoker than get no lungs at all,"he said. ___ Online:. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Cross Flow Fan , Ac Axial Fan for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Industrial Exhaust Fan.
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