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‘Future of medicine’: Damaged liver treated and frozen before the world’s first transplant | UK News


A damaged human liver was processed and preserved in a machine for three days before being successfully transplanted into a patient in a world-first surgery, researchers revealed.

The man involved quickly recovered to his quality of life without any signs of liver damage or rejection – and remained healthy a year after surgery.

The development could save many lives, the researchers say, as the technology could increase the number of livers available for transplant and allow surgery to be scheduled days in advance.

The man being operated on was a cancer patient on a Swiss transplant waiting list, who was selected to use a processed human liver.

After his consent, the organ was transplanted in May 2021 and he was able to leave the hospital a few days later.

He said: “I am so grateful to the agency that saved my life. Due to the rapid progression of the tumor, I had very little chance of getting a liver on the waiting list in a reasonable amount of time.”

This is due to the growing gap between the need for a liver transplant and the number of available organs.

And because it is clinical practice to preserve donor livers for no more than 12 hours on ice prior to transplantation, the number of organs that can be transplanted to transplant recipients is limited.

EFFECTS TO 1600 DAYS THURSDAY MAY 31 This undated handout photo released by Zurich University Hospital by Surgeon Pierre-Alain Clavien and the patient leaves the hospital after a successful transplant.  In the world's first, a damaged human liver was processed and stored in a machine for three days before being successfully transplanted into a patient, the researchers said.  Release date: Tuesday, May 31, 2022.
Picture:
Professor Pierre-Alain Clavien and the patient leave the hospital

‘The future of medicine’

The human liver in this case was preserved at the University Hospital Zurich using a machine that performed a technique known as a peripheral blood transfusion.

This is when the organ is supplied with a blood substitute that is at normal body temperature when outside the body.

The machine replicates the human body as precisely as possible to create ideal conditions for the human liver.

Professor Pierre-Alain Clavien and his colleagues at the hospital’s department of surgery and organ transplantation prepared the liver in a machine with various drugs, making it suitable for transplantation even though it was not initially suitable for transplantation. approved for the process.

Liver transplants are given to patients with several serious illnesses, including end-stage liver disease and liver cancer.

Professor Clavien said: “Our therapy shows that by treating the liver in an infusion machine, it is possible to alleviate organ dysfunction and save lives.”

Mark Tibbitt, professor of macromolecular engineering at ETH Zurich, described it as “the future of medicine”.

He added: “This will allow us to use new findings more quickly to treat patients.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.



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