The hardest organ transplant to get is the lungs because lung donors are rare due to the high prevalence of smoking and lung diseases and lung transplants are also complex and also require a high level of surgical expertise and the lungs are also prone to rejection more than other organs as they are exposed to the environment and immune system.
And the wait time for a lung transplant can also be several years.
The lungs are also the organ with the highest rate of organ rejection when compared to other solid organ transplants.
Lung transplants are often successful, although they are also more prone to rejection, with acute cellular rejection that occurs in around 90 percent or lung transplant patients.
The lungs are particularly vulnerable to rejection as a result of their complex structure and exposure to the external environment.
Lung transplants are also susceptible to chronic rejection, which is also known as bronchiolitis obilterans syndrome and can significantly shorten the lifespan of the transplanted lung.
The kidneys as well as hearts are also prone to rejection but not as high of rate of a rejection as lung transplants are.
The transplant that is rarely rejected is a cornea transplant.
While cornea transplants can rarely be rejected they almost are never rejected because the cornea, is the transparent front part of the eye and lacks a direct blood supply.
The cornea of the eye receives it's oxygen and nutrients through diffusion from tears and the aqueous humor and not blood vessels and the lack of blood supply is what reduces the likelihood of immune cell interaction and rejection.
Due to the lack of direct blood supply to the cornea, this means that there are less immune cells to trigger a rejection response.
Transplants between identical twins are also almost never rejected because identical twins share almost the same genetic makeup, which means that the identical twins tissues have the same antigens, which makes them virtually indistinguishable to the immune system.
And as a result, transplants that occur between identical twins are rarely rejected.
The hardest transplant to recover from is a lung transplant, due to the complexity and susceptibility of infection and rejection of the lung transplant.
And other transplants that are also hard to recover from are combined heart and lung or lung and liver kidney transplants.
Lung transplants are the most difficult transplants to recover from because the lungs are highly susceptible to infection as well as damage during the retrieval and transplant process.
The rarest organ transplant is a triple organ transplant.
A triple organ transplant is a transplant that involves the heart, liver and kidney.
Triple organ transplants are very rare, and less than 80 triple organ transplants have been attempted in the United States, within the last last couple of decades.
Another rare transplant is a syngeneic transplant, which is where a stem cell donor is an identical twin.
The most sought after organ transplant is a kidney transplant.
In the United States, a significant portion of the waiting list for transplants are people waiting for kidney transplants.
The demand for kidney transplants far exceeds the available kidneys for transplant.
The organ that cannot be transplanted is the brain.
The brain is the organ that cannot be transplanted because the brain is a complex organ and delicate organ that is responsible for controlling of all the bodily functions.
The brain is also very and extremely difficult to reconnect and to disconnect to another body without causing severe damage.
The lungs are often the most difficult organ to transplant as a result of several factors which include a higher risk of chronic rejection as well as infection and difficulty in preserving the donor lungs for transplant.
Some factors that make lung transplants pretty challenging to transplant include.
High Risk of Chronic Rejection.
A significant percentage of lung transplant recipients develop chronic lung allograft dysfunction also known as CLAD within 5 years, which is a form of chronic rejection.
Infection Vulnerability.
The lungs are susceptible to infections, especially in the late stages of a lung donor's life, which can also complicate the transplant process.
Preserving donor lungs for transplant can also be difficult as they are fragile and also susceptible to damage.
Lung transplant recipients also have a lower long term survival rate when compared to other organ transplants, partly due to CLAD.