Researchers have developed a machine to hold human livers outside the body for seven days.
More than 1,000 liver transplants are performed each year in France. As with all such procedures, there is a limited time between when the organ is harvested and when it is transplanted. For the liver,do not exceed 18 hours . And only healthy livers are affected. However, the situation may soon change.
Researchers at the University Hospital of Zurich (Switzerland) have in fact developed a machine capable of keeping human livers alive outside the human body for a week .
Achieving such a feat necessarily involves very complex mechanics. Doctors and engineers worked hand in hand for several years to develop this machine, which roughly mimics many of our essential bodily functions .
“The success of this unique infusion system – developed over a four-year period by a group of surgeons, biologists and engineers – paves the way for many new applications in transplantation and cancer medicine helping patients without liver transplants” , said Pierre-Alain Clavien, chairman of the department of surgery and transplantation at the University Hospital of Zurich (USZ).
This machine could actually make it possible to increase the number of organs available for transplantation . It could therefore potentially save many lives patients with liver disease or cancer.
Best of all, when incorporated into this machine, livers not suitable for transplantation can also find a "second life".
During a study, detailed in the journal Nature Biotechnology , the researchers explain that they placed 10 livers in poor condition in their machine. All had been refused transplantation by all European centres. After seven days, six of them had regained their full functions .
This is only a first step, but oh so promising. The next will be to transplant these organs directly into the bodies of waiting patients.
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