This article reviews recent developments in the selection, assessment, and management of the potential lung donor that aim to increase donor organ use. The scarcity of suitable donor organs results in long waiting times and significant mortality for those patients awaiting transplant. Strategies to expand the donor pool can substantially improve donor lung use rates. Although further long-term studies are required to confirm that long-term outcomes are not being compromised, the available evidence suggests that the traditional factors defining a lung as marginal or extended do not actually compromise outcomes within the framework of current donor management strategies. Crown Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.