ABSTRACT
Lung transplantation (LuTx) is an important treatment for a selected group of patients in the terminal stage of a number of lung diseases, which can bring them a significant improvement in quality of life and long-term survival. Nowadays a perioperative period is not significant limitation for patient survival due to the development of transplant surgery, but the period of months to years after LuTx is crucial for survival. The post-transplant period is very complicated for LuTx patients due to a special treatment regimen, special medication, especially immunosuppressive drugs and the possibility of many complications, whether early or late or acute or chronic. These complications can be divided into several groups. These are rejections, infections, tumors, non-infectious pulmonary complications, and extrapulmonary complications. This is a very wide range of diverse states and to cope with them, it is necessary, apart from good patient co-operation, to team together with specialists in many fields of medicine. But the reward is the satisfaction, good quality of life and long-term survival of transplanted patients.Key words: infection - lung transplantation - rejection - tumours.
Subject(s)
Lung Transplantation/adverse effects , Postoperative Complications , Adult , Female , Graft Rejection/epidemiology , Humans , Lung Diseases/surgery , Middle Aged , Postoperative Complications/epidemiology , Postoperative Complications/etiology , Quality of LifeABSTRACT
This general article discusses the problems of beta-blockers use in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Its aim is to refute exaggerated concerns of physicians over possible undesirable effects of beta-blockers on the patient respiratory functions and present new data on the effects of beta-blockers on the extent of COPD exacerbations, bronchial reactivity and mortality of patients.
