Today, lung transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients in advanced stages of chronic lung diseases, so that since 1990 more than 25000 lung transplantations have been performed in the world. During the past decades, improvements in donor lung procurement, strategies to find suitable patients, surgical techniques, and post-transplantation care methods have resulted in lower mortality and morbidity rates in patients. However, lung transplantation is still one of the most difficult ones in organ transplantation, and many reliable and valid world transplantation centers have been unable to perform it.

Our country is among the few nations in the Middle East and Asia pioneering in lung transplantation. Though the first lung transplantation in Iran dates back to the year 2000 at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, in a short while SBMU Masih Daneshvari Educational Hospital has become the center of unilateral and bilateral lung transplantation. The SBMU Lung Transplantation Research Center began its transplantations in 2007, and is currently the most active centers in Iran in performing lung transplantation. The center has presented several articles at MESOT (the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation) conferences, as well as publishing articles in lung transplantation research journals in the world. Since the presentation of proposals of strategic plans are important prerequisites in research centers, the center’s strategic research program has been developed with the collaboration of the academic staff and promotion of the research and scientific levels of the center.