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Surgeons Perform Transplant of Gene-Tweaked Pig Heart Into Second Patient

A second human patient has received a genetically altered pig heart as he battles the ravages of end-stage heart disease.

The 58-year-old man, Lawrence Faucette, received the pig organ at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

The medical team was the same one that performed the first pig transplant with another patient in January 2022.

“We are once again o...

Implant Can Warn Weeks Early That Transplanted Organ Will Be Rejected

Receiving an organ transplant can be a nerve-wracking, if lifesaving, affair, said Dr. Joaquin Brieva, a kidney transplant recipient.

“Within two days of my transplant, my kidney function was back to normal, but then you worry about the possibility of ...

In a First, Scientists Grow Human Kidneys Inside Pigs

For the first time ever, a solid humanized organ has been grown from scratch in an animal — a first step in a process that could potentially solve organ shortages and save countless lives.

Chinese researchers grew partially human early-stage kidneys inside embryonic pigs, using a variety of genetic engineering techniques, a new report reveals.

“This study demonstrates proof-of-p...

In Primate Study, Antibody Treatment Prevents Organ Rejection After Transplant

A new study in non-human primates shows potential for using a manmade monoclonal antibody to help prevent organ rejection after a transplant.

The antibody was successful in promoting graft survival after kidney and pancreatic islet cell transplantations, according to the research.

This clears a path for this new monoclonal antibody to move forward in human clinical trials, the rese...

Getting His Life Back: Regaining Strength After a Triple-Organ Transplant

Valance Sams Sr. believes that he has experienced "a miracle."

Sams, now 46, underwent a triple organ transplant in the spring of 2023, making him one of fewer than 50 people in the United States to ever receive three new organs via transplantation.

He received a new heart, kidney and liver during a 20-hour operation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles that involved around...

Improved Pig-to-Human Kidney Transplants Mark a Major Advance

Genetically engineered pig kidneys are nearing the point where they could provide a government-approved, sustainable supply of organs for sick humans awaiting a transplant, a pair of new studies argue.

A lightly modified pig kidney has continued to function more than a month in a brain-dead human donor kept alive on a ventilator, according to an ongoing study conducted at NYU Langone Heal...

'Walking Miracles': Born With Lungs Reversed, They Suffered Until Getting Double-Organ Transplants

Dennis Deer woke from surgery in utter disbelief that he was breathing normally.

He'd been on supplemental oxygen for two years, and “I didn't know what it was like not to have something on my face,” said Deer, 51, a Chicago-area politician and psychologist.

“I immediately said, 'Where is my oxygen?' And my wife said to me, ‘Well, you don't need the oxygen anymore,'" Deer re...

Many Hospitals Ignore Directives of Organ Transplant Waiting Lists: Study

Many transplant centers routinely practice “list-diving,” when the top candidate among potential organ recipients is skipped in favor of someone further down the list, new research shows.

The top candidate is ranked that way based on an objective algorithm using age, waiting time and other factors, while choosing someone else happens with little oversight or transparency. And that may...

New Approach to Transplants Could Boost Supply of Donor Hearts

A new transplant method that "reanimates" donor hearts appears safe and effective, a new clinical trial has found — in an advance that could substantially expand the supply of donor hearts available in the United States.

The trial tested an approach that allows doctors to transplant hearts from donors who have succumbed to "circulatory death" — meaning the heart has stopped beating. T...

Cool Storage Could Keep Lungs Ready for Transplant Longer

Storing donor lungs at cool — but not near freezing — temperatures can markedly increase the length of time the organs can live outside the human body, a new study suggests.

Lungs stored at 50 degrees Fahrenheit remain healthy and viable for transplant up to four times longer than those stored at the current standard temperature of 39 degrees, according to new clinical trial results.<...

Debunking Myths About Organ Donation

Far more people need an organ transplant than there are organs available.

It doesn't have to be that way.

Dr. Johnny Hong, chief of transplantation at Penn State Health's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, explored some of the myths about organ donation.

“We have an organ sh...

Feds Propose Overhaul of U.S. Organ Transplant System

A single nonprofit has what amounts to a monopoly over all organ transplants performed in the United States, but the federal government said Wednesday that it plans to change that.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which has contracted with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) to run the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network for 37 years, announced ...

New Lease on Life for Two Lung Cancer Patients After Pioneering Double-Lung Transplant

Retired nurse Tannaz Ameli was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last winter. When chemotherapy failed, her doctors recommended hospice care.

But Ameli, of Minneapolis, had other ideas. She and her husband sought out a pioneering medical team at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. Today, she is a survivor of a double-lung transplant -- just the second this team of specialists has succ...

Scientists Devise Way to Keep Donor Hearts Viable Longer

Doctors have discovered a way to extend the short shelf life of donor hearts, which could hopefully make more of the organs available to desperate recipients.

Valproic acid (Depakote), which is approved to treat seizures, boosts production of an enzyme that increases the length of time donated hearts can be stored and transported.

The drug also could improve the hearts' function aft...

Massachusetts Bill Would Let Prisoners Donate Organs in Exchange for Shorter Sentence

Massachusetts legislators have proposed a bill that would allow prison inmates to donate their organs or bone marrow as a way to trim the length of their sentence.

While some experts wonder about the ethics of such a law and whether it would even be allowed under federal law, a Democratic sponsor of the bill,

There May Be a Better Way to Allocate Precious Donor Lungs for Transplant

A new way of allocating donor lungs that eliminates geographical restrictions could save more lives, new research suggests.

In early 2023, the current U.S. system, which looks for compatible candidates within a fixed radius, will be replaced by the Composite Allocation Score. The new score will prioritize a candidate's medical needs.

“The importance of removing the geographical ba...

Need for Organ Transplants Surges at Big Motorcycle Rallies: Study

Once a year, giant motorcycle rallies ride into places like Daytona Beach, Fla., and Sturgis, S.D., bringing hundreds of thousands of people, an economic boost -- and a wave of crash-related deaths.

That means more organs available for donation and the need to be prepared, according to a

  • Cara Murez HealthDay Reporter
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  • November 29, 2022
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  • 69 vs. 70: Bias Against Older Organ Donors May Be Costing Lives

    The difference between age 69 and age 70 is, of course, just a single year.

    Yet, organizations that receive organs for transplant patients are less likely to choose one from the older donor, a new study finds.

    American organ procurement organization...

    Heart's Electrical Signals Changed in First Pig-to-Human Cardiac Transplant

    Less than a year after the first-ever transplant of a pig heart into a human patient, doctors are reporting that the heart showed unexpected changes in its electrical system before the recipient ultimately died.

    The changes are not believed to have contributed to the patient's death. But experts said that the observation will help in preparing for any such transplants in the future.

    Hearts From Donors Who Had COVID Are Safe for Transplant

    A person with heart failure in dire need of a new heart may have faced delays in getting one during the pandemic when potential donors tested positive for COVID-19.

    As some centers began accepting these hearts for transplant anyway, data from a new study shows that...

    Some Donor Livers Keep Working for 100 Years: Study

    Some human livers are tougher than others, lasting more than 100 cumulative years between the organ's original host and a transplant recipient, a new study discovers.

    Understanding what makes these livers so resilient could help improve the donor pool by paving the way ...

    Scientists Create Synthetic Mouse Embryo With Brain, Beating Heart

    Using only mouse stem cells, British researchers report they have created synthetic embryos that form a brain, a beating heart and other organs.

    The stem cells organized themselves until they developed beating hearts and the foundations of the brain and yolk sacs where the embryo...

    Organ From Live Donor Best When Child Needs New Kidney

    Children who need kidney transplants have better long-term outcomes when the donor is a living person and not someone who has died and donated organs, a new study finds.

    "The findings of our study should lay to rest any fears and concerns that centers have about accepting organs from unrelate...

    Scientists Restore Some Function to Pig Tissues 1 Hour After Death

    Minutes after a heartbeat stops, a massive series of disastrous events triggered by lack of blood flow begins to destroy a body's cells and organs.

    This chain of events had been thought to be inevitable and irreversible. Now, a new animal study shows that

  • Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
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  • August 3, 2022
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  • Pig Hearts Successfully Transplanted Into 2 Brain-Dead Patients

    Genetically altered pig hearts could soon become a viable transplantation alternative for people with life-threatening heart disease, new experiments show.

    A team at NYU Langone Health has successfully transplanted two such pig hearts into brain-dead humans on life support, making advances that may soon help address the nationwide organ shortage.

    No signs of early rejection were obs...

    Good Outcomes From First 5 Years of Uterus Transplants, But Concerns Remain

    For women who can't get pregnant because they don't have a uterus or the one they have no longer works properly, uterine transplants can indeed help these women become mothers, new research shows.

    Of 33 women who received a uterus transplant...

    Doctors Transplant Kidneys to Children Without Need for Immune-Suppressing Drugs

    Researchers have figured out a way to safely give children a donor kidney without the need for immune-suppressing drugs -- an advance they hope to expand to many more kidney transplant patients in coming year...

    Woman Receives 3-D Printed Ear Transplant Made of Human Cells

    A 3-D printed ear made with the patient's own cells has been transplanted onto a 20-year-old woman, the company that made the ear says.

    The achievement announced June 2 by 3DBio Therapeutics of New York City is believed to be the first known example of a 3-D printed implant made of living tissues. Experts hailed it as a major advance in...

    Kidney Transplant Safe When Organ Donor Has COVID: Study

    Even before the pandemic, the demand for donor kidneys far exceeded supply. That shortfall only worsened when hospitals started refusing to use kidneys from COVID-positive donors.

    However,

    Virus Found in Pig Heart Transplanted Into Man Who Later Died

    An investigation into the death of the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has discovered that the organ had an animal virus, but it's not clear if the virus was a factor in the patient's death, University of Maryland Medical Center doctors say.

    They found viral DNA inside the pig heart transplanted into 57-year-old David Bennett Sr., 57, who

  • By Robert Preidt and Robin Foster HealthDay Reporters
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  • May 6, 2022
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  • Thinking of Donating a Kidney? New Data Shows It's Safe

    If you're thinking about donating a kidney, new research could alleviate your concerns.

    "The results of this study are extremely reassuring for individuals who are considering being living kidney donors. We found that this lifesaving surgery, when performed at experienced transplant centers, is extremely safe," said study co-author Dr. Timucin Taner, chair of transplant surgery at Mayo Cl...

    How Too Much Drinking Harms the Liver

    As Americans stepped up their drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, liver disease and transplants surged.

    Between March 2020 and January 2021, the number of U.S. patients with alcohol-associated liver disease who received a new liver or were wait-listed for a transplant was 50% higher than pre-pandemic projections, researchers say.

  • By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter
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  • April 16, 2022
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  • Organs Donated by People Who Had COVID Are Safe: Study

    For those waiting during the pandemic for a new kidney or liver, new research is reassuring: Organs from deceased donors who had COVID-19 did not cause infection in recipients and posed no risk to health care workers.

    In a study that began in September 2021, the Duke University School of Medicine team assessed

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  • March 23, 2022
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  • Man Who Received First Pig Heart Transplant Has Died

    The first person to receive a pig heart transplant in a groundbreaking procedure performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center in January has died, hospital officials said Wednesday.

    David Bennett, a 57-year-old Marylander, suffered from severe heart disease and had agreed to receive the experimental pig's heart after he was rejected from several waiting lists to receive a human ...

    Scientists Create 'Universal' Donor Organs Where Blood Type Doesn't Matter

    It's possible to create "universal" donor organs that would eliminate the need to match transplant donor and recipient blood types, researchers report.

    "With the current matching system, wait times can be considerably longer for patients who need a transplant depending on their blood type," said senior study author Dr. Marcelo Cypel, surgical director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre, Univ...

    Hospital Defends Decision to Deny Heart Transplant to Unvaccinated Man

    In response to claims that a man was denied a heart transplant because he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that its transplant policies mirror those used across the United States.

    In a crowdfunding appeal for 31-year-old D.J. Ferguson, a father of two, his family said the hospital told him he was ineligible to receive a new ...

    Almost 1 in 10 U.S. Lung Transplants Now Due to COVID

    COVID-19 is changing medicine in yet another way: A new study finds that patients with COVID-related lung damage now account for nearly one in 10 lung transplants in the United States.

    The researchers analyzed data on more than 3,000 lung transplants nationwide between Aug. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. They found that 7% of them were performed to treat severe, irreversible lung damage cau...

    Doctors Transplant Gene-Modified Pig Kidneys Into Brain-Dead Patient

    In another breakthrough for animal-to-human organ transplantation, U.S. researchers say they've transplanted two genetically modified pig kidneys into a living human.

    The recipient was Jim Parsons, 57, a brain-dead man on life support whose family agreed to allow the surgical team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to use his body for this research.

    The kidneys functio...

    In Breakthrough Transplant, Man Receives Genetically Modified Pig Heart

    In a medical first, doctors from the University of Maryland have implanted the heart of a genetically modified pig in a 57-year-old man facing the final stages of heart disease.

    The surgical feat, known as

  • Robin Foster HealthDay Reporter
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  • January 11, 2022
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  • When Kidney Transplant Fails, Trying Again Is Best Option: Study

    You were lucky enough to receive a kidney years ago, but now it is failing. Is it better to opt for another transplant or go on dialysis?

    New research suggests a second transplant may be the better option.

    Kidney transplants from deceased donors function for a median ...

    Heart Transplant Successful in Young Man Who Survived Severe COVID-19

    After nearly dying from a severe case of COVID-19, a young male patient received a successful heart transplant even as he was recuperating from his infection while on a ventilator, a new case study reports.

    The transplant was performed on the 31-year-old patient at the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in May.

    It's one of the first cases of its kind in the wor...

    With Holidays Ahead, COVID Boosters a Must for People With Weak Immune Systems

    If you're a patient with a weakened immune system, roll up your sleeves to stay safe over the holidays and winter months.

    "Immunocompromised patients absolutely should get a flu shot as well as an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose," said Dr. Marwa Kaisey, a neuroimmunologist and assistant professor of neurology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.

    "Otherwise, they are more likely to have ...

    People on Immune-Suppressing Meds Fare Equally Well With Severe COVID

    Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who take medications that suppress the immune system don't have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 than those with normal immune systems, a new study finds.

    Early in the pandemic, it was feared that people taking immunosuppressive drugs were at increased risk of severe COVID-19 due to their weakened immune systems. The drugs are used to treat cancer and autoim...

    Demand for Liver Transplant Rises Sharply Among Older Americans

    More older folks are winding up on liver transplant waiting lists than ever before, as obesity and alcoholism supersede hepatitis C as the main cause of liver failure in the United States.

    The percentage of liver transplant candidates aged 65 or older rose from 9% in the early 2000s to 23% by 2020, researchers found. Most seniors' liver failure is due to fatty liver disease, in which exce...

    More Evidence COVID Shots Less Effective for People With Weak Immune Systems

    Transplant patients and certain other folks may need four shots of COVID-19 vaccine for optimal protection, new research suggests.

    People with weakened immune systems who've received both doses of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines aren't adequately protected against severe illness. They should be given a third shot plus a booster, according to the study.

    "These findings indicate that while...

    Many Blood Cancer Patients Get Little Protection From COVID Vaccine

    Anti-vaxxers felt their suspicions confirmed when former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell died from COVID-19 complications in mid-October despite being fully vaccinated.

    But Powell, 84, was being treated for blood cancer at the time of his death, and a new study reports that the COVID vaccines are producing little to no protection for some cancer patients.

    Nearly 3 out of 5 bloo...

    Doctors Report That Kidney Grown in Pig Worked in a Human

    A kidney grown in a genetically altered pig functioned normally after being attached to a human patient during a groundbreaking procedure performed by U.S. doctors.

    If the technique proves generally successful it could revolutionize organ transplant, greatly expanding the pool of available organs.

    The surgery was conducted in September at NYU Langone Health in New York City and invo...

    AHA News: Women May Be More Willing Than Men to Donate Organs

    Men and women have similar reasons for becoming -- or not becoming -- an organ donor, according to a new study. Yet women appear more willing to donate their organs to family members or strangers.

    The results, published Sept. 24 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, suggest improving communication among family members about organ donation wishes could help increase ...

    Kidney Damage Another Consequence of 'Long COVID,' Study Finds

    People hospitalized for COVID-19, and even some with milder cases, may suffer lasting damage to their kidneys, new research finds.

    The study of more than 1.7 million patients in the U.S. Veterans Affairs system adds to concerns about the lingering effects of COVID -- particularly among people sick enough to need hospitalization.

    Researchers found that months after their initial infe...

    U.S. Kidney Transplant Outcomes Are Improving

    Here's some hopeful news for those who have kidney transplants: Long-term survival rates have improved over the past three decades, a review shows.

    "There has been a gratifying improvement in kidney transplant survival, both for patients and the kidney graft itself, from 1996 to the current era," said review author Dr. Sundaram Hariharan, a senior transplant nephrologist at the University...