A warm liver is better than a cold one
The new device doubled the shelf life of the donor liver
Copper news
A transplant surgeon and an engineer from the UK have developed a device that allows at least twice as long to store a donor liver intended for transplantation, according to a press release from Oxford University (Device keeps human liver alive outside body - VM). The invention of the British allows you to store the liver at the temperature of the human body.
According to the current practice, donor organs (including the liver) removed for transplantation are cooled to four degrees Celsius and delivered to their destination in special containers. Such conservation does not exclude the "damage" of organs and allows them to be preserved for a maximum of 12 hours.
The device, which has been worked on for 15 years by a research engineer, Professor Constantin Cousios (Constantin Cousios) and a transplant surgeon, Professor Peter Friend (Peter Friend) from Oxford, allows you to save a donor liver for at least a day. According to the inventors, they tried to recreate the natural environment for the seized organs.
Scientists propose to place the organ intended for transplantation in a special container, inside which the temperature of the human body is preserved. Tubes are connected to the main vessels through which blood is pumped; also, during storage, the liver receives oxygen and all the necessary nutrients. Under such conditions, according to the results of experiments, the liver can be stored from 24 to 72 hours.
According to the researchers, the organ located in the container can spontaneously recover from previous injuries. In addition, under these conditions, it becomes possible to determine the viability of the liver even before the transplant operation.
Surgeons have already tested the new device in action. Doctors of the largest transplant center in Europe – the London King's College Hospital – transplanted the "warm liver" stored in the new device to two patients. Both operations were successful.
"I was very impressed by how quickly both organs began to function after the transplant," said surgeon Wayel Jassem, who performed both transplant operations. "In the case of these two transplants, we needed to keep the liver "alive" for ten hours. But in other experiments, we proved that we can keep the liver functioning and monitor its work outside the body for 24 hours," explained Professor Kouossios.
In the future, the inventors plan to conduct extended tests of their device in three European countries. As part of this study, eight more patients of King's College Hospital will receive a "warm liver" in the near future.
A device for storing donor hearts with a similar principle of operation was introduced at the beginning of last year by the American corporation TransMedics. The artificial blood circulation system, to which the withdrawn heart is connected, allows it to contract and function outside the human body for a long time.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.03.2013