Lung transplantation is limited by a shortage of suitable donors. To address this shortage, we have begun using donor lungs that do not meet all of our previous rigorous donor criteria.
Of 133 consecutive lung transplants done between June 1991 and March 1994, 89 donors were considered ideal because they satisfied all of the following accepted donor criteria (group I): age younger than 55 years, smoking less than 20 pack-years,