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Lung transplantation (LTx) is now generally accepted as a useful modality of care for patients with severe life-threatening respiratory diseases that are refractory to other medical or surgical therapies. With the huge development of LTx over the last 15 yrs, the disparity between the number of potential recipients and the number of donor organs available has become a major constraint, with many patients dying on the waiting lists. Therefore, it is of primary importance to control and optimise the use of this limited organ resource by weighting the risks and benefits of transplantation in individual patients, and to identify those patients who have a better chance of having a favourable outcome with transplantation.

This article discusses the selection process of potential candidates and the currently accepted absolute and relative contraindications, and proposes general and disease-specific recommendations for …