A Hearty Life

Beating-Heart Transplants

by Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD on June 5th, 2006

The first successful beating-heart transplant has been carried out in the UK. The heart was kept alive and beating outside the body for five hours, one hour longer than the usual viable time period for non-beating donor hearts. The 58-year-old organ recipient is doing well one week after the operation.

Why is keeping the donor heart beating an important development?

• The number of organs available for transplant will increase.
• The number of potential recipients could be broadened.
• Surgeons will have the opportunity to assess the heart and test it for existing diseases.
• More extensive tissue matching may reduce the risk of rejection.
• Surgeries can be scheduled for daytime hours instead of in the middle of the night.
• Hearts from far away can be transported longer distances for people who desperately need them.

John Wallwork, transplant surgeon at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire:

It is a very clever piece of kit with lots of clever chemicals and clever nutrients. It keeps the heart warm and measures the coronary flow and lots of other things. In this case we kept the heart on the rig for five hours just to show it worked, not to extend the time. Potentially using this kit we could store a heart for up to 12 hours. Without it, if you take a heart out of a body, it begins to rot after about four hours.

What could be better than a hearty and clever life?

Independent, June 5, 2006

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POSTED IN: Heart Transplants, Hearty Healthcare, Hearty News