Angol
The very first clinical lung transplantation in 1963 was not too promising a start. In the years that followed, immense obstacles had to be surmounted and for a while nobody believed in the success of such an operation. Fortunately pioneers as Reitz and Cooper did not abandon the idea and it is also due to them that lung transplantation has found widespread application.§By now well above 10.000 lung transplants have been carried out world-wide in specialised centres, such as the German Heart Centre at Berlin. Thus essential knowledge and experience has been gained, however, postoperative complications have not yet ceased to pose serious problems to the transplantation community.§That among other topics, was a key issue at this Berlin symposium, the proceedings of which are compiled in this volume. They reflect the state of thought and experience in lung transplantation at the beginning of the second millennium. Most of these articles are of high value to today s specialists.§
