In the Clinic for Pediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology children and adolescents are cared for before and after lung and heart/lung transplantation. These two transplant procedures aim to improve survival time as well as quality of life when organ failure is imminent despite exhaustion and intensive implementation of all possible therapeutic options. The most common diseases leading to lung transplantation in childhood and adolescence are cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension and various forms of childhood interstitial lung disease (ChILD).

After successful transplantation the patients are seen regularly in our follow-up outpatient clinic. The initial presentation before a possible transplantation takes place on an inpatient basis in our pediatric lung ward 63.

At the Hannover Medical School, an average of eight to ten children from zero to 17 years of age are transplanted each year, representing the majority of all children and adolescents receiving lung transplants in Germany. Patients aged 18 and over are cared for by colleagues in cardiac, thoracic, transplantation and vascular surgery as well as pneumology.