Researchers try new ways of preserving more hearts for transplants
UNITED STATES, JUL 16 – Vanderbilt and Duke's new preservation techniques have enabled about 45 donor heart transplants with outcomes equal or superior to current methods, potentially easing the organ shortage.
- On Wednesday, surgeons at Duke and Vanderbilt reported they separately developed simpler methods to retrieve hearts for transplant.
- These efforts respond to the urgent demand for more transplantable hearts, as about 700 US children join waiting lists annually and 20% die waiting.
- Vanderbilt's new method, used in 25 heart transplants so far, flushes hearts with cold oxygenated liquid after circulatory death, avoiding ethical issues of reanimating donor circulation.
- Dr. Aaron Williams called the method simpler, cost-effective, with transplantation outcomes comparable to current techniques, while Duke's Dr. Turek noted devices used cannot aid small children's hearts, the group with highest need.
- If these innovations succeed, they could expand donor heart availability, help recover unused hearts, and reduce transplant waitlist deaths among adults and children.
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60 Articles
Hospitals Pioneer New Methods to Expand Heart Transplants After Cardiac Death
Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies — advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused. The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines. Surgeons at Duke …
Amrita hospital saves four lives without an open-heart surgery –...
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Vanderbilt part of research trying new ways of preserving hearts for transplants
Two university hospitals are pioneering new ways to expand lifesaving heart transplants for adults and babies — advances that could help recover would-be heart donations that too often go unused. The new research aims to overcome barriers for using organs from someone who dies when their heart stops. Called DCD, or donation after circulatory death, it involves a controversial recovery technique or the use of expensive machines. Surgeons at Duke …
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