In patients with pulmonary fibrosis and progressive respiratory failure despite conservative treatment, unilateral lung transplantation offers a new therapeutic alternative. At the Medical School in Hannover, five patients--the first to be thus treated in Central Europe--with terminal pulmonary fibrosis of the lung have so far been successfully treated with unilateral lung transplantation. All five patients are still alive, and all experienced a marked improvement in their pulmonary function parameters, such that they have been enabled to lead a normal life again.