A team of surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical School successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a 57-year-old man suffering from fatal heart disease. It is a groundbreaking new medical advance that offers hope to thousands of patients who are waiting for organs to save their lives.
The operation was carried out on January 7 and demonstrated for the first time that the heart of an animal can continue to beat in a human being without immediate rejection.
The patient who received the pig heart is David Bennett, a Maryland resident who was not suitable for a conventional heart transplant, and who in recent months remained in bed connected to a life support machine.
“It was either dying or doing this transplant. I want to live. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but it’s my last option… I hope to get out of bed after I recover”, said Mr. Bennett, a day before the surgery was to be performed.
After the surgery, David is being carefully monitored to determine if the transplant has more life-saving benefits.
Pig transplant, the last hope
In the hope of saving the patient’s life, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization for the surgery through its expanded access (compassionate use) provision and which is used when a product, in this case the pig heart, is the only option available to face a fatal condition.
“This was a revolutionary surgery and it brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. We are proceeding cautiously, but we are also optimistic that this world’s first surgical operation will provide an important new option for patients in the future”, said Bartley Griffith, the doctor who made the transplant.
Xenotransplantation: transplantation of animal organs
This is not the first time that animals have been experimented with to perform organ transplants. For years experts in the field of health have carried out xenotransplantation or organ donations between species; in fact, the first attempt dates from 1964. It was carried out by James Hardy, an American surgeon at the University of Mississippi, who implanted the heart of a chimpanzee in a 68-year-old heart patient, who died 90 minutes later.
Since then, doctors and specialists have not stopped investigating and have discovered that the organs of the porcine species are very viable to adapt to the human body.
Currently, there are pig heart valves and coils that are used in humans and that have had a good response when adapting to the human body.
