A breakthrough in heart transplant surgery

[Warrigal]

A hospital in Sydney has now successfully used non beating hearts from deceased patients to transplant into three people. The last one was only three days ago but the first was three months ago. All patients are doing very well.

Australia claims world first in heart surgery

24th Oct 2014



A SYDNEY hospital's surgeons have completed the world's first heart transplant of a dead person's heart.

The St Vincent's Hospital Heart Lung Transplant unit recently completed two transplants using hearts donated after circulatory death.

Usually teams transplant the still-beating heart of a brain-dead donor patient.

The team used special techniques and pioneering research work by the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute to successfully complete the two operations.

Association Professor Kumud Dhital, who performed the operations, said transplant teams had relied solely on brain-dead donors until now.

Transplant unit medical director Professor Peter MacDonald said the operations were "a major inroad to reducing the shortage of donor organs".

I remember the very first heart transplant carried out in South Africa by Dr Lance Barnard. It seemed unbelievably miraculous way back then. Today we are much more blasé but this development is still rather special IMO.

 

[oldman]

I think this is truly amazing. I have questions about this, but for now, I applaud the doctors and those that did the research that aided in this breakthrough surgery.

 

[QuickSilver]

That has been one of the draw backs to organ transplant, particularly heart transplant, and the reason many people don't want to be doners. Organs had to be harvested from brain dead doners before actual physical death occurred. There was a fear that doctors would not do everything to save someone if they were going to use their organs. This would increase the number of organs available too, since actual circulatory death is no longer a deterrant to organ harvesting This is a phenomonal breakthrough.