Only a month after conducting its first liver transplants, Allegheny General Hospital announced yesterday that it plans to open a lung transplant program.

The hospital received approval for the lung program in September from the United Network for Organ Sharing, also known as UNOS.

"Lung transplantation will be a critical component of the hospital's comprehensive lung disease program," said Dr. Robert Keenan, the hospital's director of thoracic surgery.

"For patients with certain life-threatening pulmonary illnesses, lung transplantation is a vital therapeutic alternative that may help us improve and extend lives," said Dr. Keenan, who will lead the new program.

It will be the fourth in the state to serve adults who need lung transplants, said hospital spokesman Dan Laurent. The others are the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University Hospital.

UPMC's program has ranked first among the nation's medical centers in the number of lung transplants performed this year, with 90 reported through Sept. 30, according to the UNOS Web site.

Prior to joining Allegheny General in 2000, Dr. Keenan directed UPMC's lung transplant program.

Reasons for lung transplantation can include pulmonary arterial hypertension, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis and cystic fibrosis.

Allegheny General performed lung transplants from 1992 through 1995. The program was voluntarily discontinued because of an organ allocation policy that was based on a patient's length of time on the waiting list, hospital officials said. They said that policy favored larger transplant centers.

The policy has since been changed to place greater emphasis on a patient's health status and likelihood of responding well to transplantation, said Joel Newman, a UNOS spokesman.

In November, Allegheny General performed its first two liver transplants. The hospital already performed heart, kidney and pancreas transplants.

When the liver transplants were announced, Mr. Laurent said Allegheny General annually had referred 20 to 30 patients to other hospitals for liver transplantation evaluation. Some were served by hospitals in other cities because their health insurance didn't cover procedures at UPMC.

Allegheny General hoped to keep those patients and attract others by offering an alternative.

Mary Ann Palumbi, the hospital's senior director of transplantation services, said yesterday that officials had similar goals for the new lung transplant program.

More than 100 people were referred to Allegheny General's lung transplant program when it operated in the 1990s, she said.