For the first time in the world, surgeons managed to transplant a heart that had stopped beating for twenty minutes.
- Italian surgeons have succeeded in transplanting a heart that had stopped beating for twenty minutes.
- This is the first time that a medical team has managed to perform such a transplant.
- Scientists hope this will increase the number of hearts eligible for transplantation and therefore the number of heart transplants.
It is a medical feat. On May 11, surgeons at the Padua hospital, located in Veneto in Italy, managed to transplant a heart that had stopped beating for twenty minutes, according to a communicated of the hospital.
Heart transplant: a future increase in transplants?
“This is the first time in the world that a stopped heart has been reactivated and implanted, without damage.To said the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, and this unblocks borders with regard to the possibilities of using organs for transplantation“. In previous search, the Italian researchers had demonstrated that a cardiac arrest of the donor before the transplant was not an obstacle to heart transplantation. Their work involved nearly 1,000 people who had undergone a transplant. This time, surgery proves that this type of heart transplant can work.
According to the authors, this could make it possible to recruit more donors and thus that “could lead to a 30% increase in the number of transplants in Italy”. “Once again it is Veneto healthcare that crosses a new frontier of medicineadds Luca Zaia. From today, heart surgery will not be like before, because a prospect opens up that can give hope to many patients who are waiting for a heart transplant.This is not the first time that the Padua hospital has been a pioneer in heart surgery. In 1985, the first heart transplant in Italy was performed in this establishment.
Who is affected by heart transplantation?
In France, the first heart transplant dates from 1968. According to theBiomedicine Agency, more than 13,500 similar operations have been carried out since. “Heart transplant is offered to some patients with heart failure.specifies the French Federation of Cardiology. It is reserved for people in whom the treatment does not prevent the progression of the disease. Also, some patients are excluded from the transplant: people over 65, those with cancer or certain kidney or liver conditions. “The patient is then registered on the waiting list for a transplant, and must therefore remain reachable 24 hours a day and be able to arrive at the hospital within 2 hours of the call informing him that an organ is available, notes the French Federation of Cardiology. The waiting time is very variable: the matching between donor and recipient is carried out according to the gravity of the recipient, the compatibility of blood group, morphology and age. According to the Biomedicine Agency, the majority of patients on the heart transplant waiting list are transplanted within a year of their registration.