• COVID-19

    Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast: COVID-19 lung damage could lead to a transplant

a surgeon in operating room performing a lung transplant

Severe lung damage has been a serious outcome for COVID-19 patients who survive and face recovery from the disease.

"As we know, lungs are one of the major organs that are involved with COVID infection," says Dr. Sadia Shah, a Mayo Clinic transplant pulmonologist and critical care physician. "In severe cases, the patient's lungs can be significantly inflamed from the disease, leading to pneumonia and scarring of the lungs, also known as pulmonary fibrosis." She says that these are the patients who may need a lung transplant in the future.

In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast, Dr. Shah talks about COVID-19 lung damage, speculation that there will be an increased need for lung transplants, and what improvements are being made in the field of lung transplantation.  

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.  

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

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