Posted on 03/17/2013 5:27:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LONDON: A human liver can now be kept "warm, alive and functioning" outside the human body for it to be transplanted into a new patient.
In a world's first, scientists from Oxford University and doctors from King's College Hospital have successfully "kept alive" a donated human liver outside a human being and then successfully transplanted it into a patient in need of a new liver.
Currently, transplantation depends on preserving donor organs by putting them 'on ice' — cooling them to slow their metabolism. But this often leads to organs becoming damaged.
So far the procedure, which will be a major boon for countries like India that already face an acute shortage of donor livers for transplantation, has been performed on two patients; both are making excellent recoveries.
The innovation is a machine developed over 15 years at Oxford University that can preserve a functioning liver outside the body for 24 hours.
A donated human liver connected to the device is raised to body temperature and oxygenated red blood cells are circulated through its capillaries. Once on the machine, a liver functions normally just as it would inside a human body, regaining its colour and producing bile.
Based on pre-clinical data, the team says the new device will lead to better preservation of livers that would otherwise be discarded as unfit for transplantation — potentially as much as doubling the number of organs available for transplant and prolonging the maximum period of organ preservation to 24 hours.
"If we can introduce technology like this into everyday practice, it could be a real, bona fide game changer for transplantation as we know it," says professor Nigel Heaton, "Buying the surgeon extra time extends the options open to our patients, many of whom would otherwise die waiting for an organ...."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofindia.indiatimes.com ...
a partial liver can even grow back, now if they can do this with kidneys, hearts and lungs, that would be the biggest news in a long time.
There must be 50 ways to leave your liver.
My apologies to Paul Simon.
My Liver just breathed a sigh of relief, though there are a few things it can’t currently comprehend.
3-D printing of body parts is in the research labs now.
why apologize? Paul Simon never apologized to us.
I think I remember an old time radio drama about this...it ate Cincinatti...
Go Chicken Heart Go...
One is TSA will take it away from you before a flight.
What a breakthrough ....if it can work for a liver....certainly other organs can be keep alive....
O’ wait.... Never mind Obamacare will certainly kill this off....
Obamacare aint going to pay for this.
If my liver could talk it could probably tell you of some near death, out of body experiences.
Liver Let Die.
I thought Healthcare was only a fairy tale
Meant for someone else but not for me
Death was out to get me (duh-dih duh-dih)
That’s the way it seemed (duh-dih duh-dih)
Disappointment haunted all my dreams
Then the transplant place- they gave me a liver
Not a trace, of cost that is mine
Obamacare (oo-ooh) got me a liver
Now I’m a Dem giver, any time...
Mickey......is that you?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.