Interruption of bronchial circulation leads to a severe decrease in peribronchial oxygen tension in standard lung transplantation technique.

In clinical practice lung transplantation is the only procedure where the transplanted organ is left without its own arterial perfusion. With the interruption of the bronchial arteries the nutritive support is dependent on collateral flow by the pulmonary artery and the oxygen tension of desaturated central venous blood, representing an abnormal physiology.