Donor instead of titanium

Italian doctors performed vertebral transplantation for the first time in the world

Alexander Logunov, RIA Novosti

Italian doctors were the first in the world to successfully transplant a section of the spine, the Bologna Institute of Orthopedics Rizzoli said in a statement.

In early September, a medical team led by Alessandro Gasbarrini replaced four vertebrae in a 77-year–old patient suffering from chordoma, one of the types of tumors affecting bone tissue.

"We recreated the patient's vertebral column in the closest to its natural form, restoring the ideal anatomy thanks to a bone transplant with a structure identical to the one we had to remove due to the tumor," Gasbarrini said.

According to him, similar organs and tissues, including bones, remain the best solution for replacing human organs and tissues, but in the absence of them, doctors have to resort to other bones and artificial materials – for example, in the case of vertebrae, sections of the tibia were previously used to replace them.

"Implantation of four vertebrae in a patient brings us closer to achieving complete fusion with the patient's spine and optimizes the course of radiation therapy, which, for example, is not compatible with a titanium prosthesis," said the head of the spine surgery department of the Bologna Hospital.

To preserve the vertebrae from a previously deceased donor, Rizzoli specialists analyzed their compatibility and, in conditions of complete sterility, froze them at a temperature of minus 80 degrees.

The patient who underwent the operation has already recovered and has been discharged. He stayed in the hospital for about a month. After two weeks of postoperative checks, he was transferred to the physiotherapy department, where "he was put on his feet and returned to the most normal possible life," the surgeon stressed.

A picture from the press release of Al Rizzoli primo trapianto al mondo di vertebre umane - VM.

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