TamilUS surgeons successfully transplant pig heart into human patient
11 January 2022, 1:06 pm
Editorial use only. HANDOUT /NO SALES Mandatory Credit: Photo by HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (12755462b) A handout photo made available by the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) that shows Surgeon Bartley P. Griffith, MD leading a team that operated a successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart in a first-of-its-kind surgery on a 57-year-old patient, David Bennett, with terminal heart disease, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 07 January 2022 (Issued 10 January 2022). First-of-its-kind heart transplant surgery in the US, Baltimore, USA - 07 Jan 2022
In what is dubbed as a ‘first-of-its-kind surgery’, the US surgeons have performed a successful transplant of a ‘porcine’ heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease.
The 57-year-old Maryland resident with terminal heart disease received a successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart and is said to be still doing well three days later.
“It was the only currently available option for the patient,” the University of Maryland Medicine said on Monday (January 10, 2022) after performing the historic surgery.
“This organ transplant demonstrated for the first time that a genetically-modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body,” the University said in a statement.
The patient, David Bennett, is currently being monitored over the next days and weeks to determine whether the transplant provides lifesaving benefits.
He, the University said, had been deemed ineligible for a conventional heart transplant at UMMC as well as at several other leading transplant centres that reviewed his medical records.
“It was either die or do this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett, who had been hospitalized and bedridden for the past few months, said before the surgery.
0
0