SURGEONS saved a woman’s life by performing the first combination of a mechanical heart pump and gene-edited pig kidney transplant.
The groundbreaking surgery took place at New York University Langone Health and saved the life of Lisa Pisano, 54, who was facing heart failure and end-stage kidney disease.
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Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, said she is currently “doing very well” in recovery after the April 12 surgery.
Before the surgery, Pisano said she was “pretty much done.”
Her kidney disease required routine dialysis and she was not a candidate for a human transplant.
“I couldn’t walk up the stairs. I couldn’t drive. I couldn’t play with my grandchildren. So when this opportunity came up, I took it,” Pisano said. CBS News chief medical correspondent, Dr. Jon LaPook.
Now, she says, she is feeling “great today compared to other days.”
Pisano received the second known transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a living person, and she was the first to have the pig’s thymus gland added to help against rejection, the hospital said.
The surgery was performed eight days after the implantation of a ventricular assist device, or heart pump.
Rejection problems with animal-to-human transplants, also known as xenotransplants, have led to failures due to the immune system attacking the foreign tissue.
Scientists are now using genetic modification for better organ matching.
“The human immune system rejects animal organs, but Dr. Montgomery and his team used a pig kidney with an altered gene to make it more compatible,” LaPook said, according to CBS News.
With his new energy, Pisano looks forward to playing with his two grandchildren for the first time in years.
“It’s not just about keeping someone alive, it’s about restoring them to their lives,” Montgomery said.
LaPook also said this new surgery was performed under the Food and Drug Administration’s “compassionate use” protocol.
This protocol, also known as the Expanded Access Protocol, is designed to allow patients suffering from a serious or immediately life-threatening illness or condition to access an investigational medical product for treatment in accordance with the FDA.
This option is available when no other treatment options are available.
“So it hasn’t been approved yet – but what an incredible technological tour de force,” Lapook said.
‘LIGHTHOUSE OF HOPE’
Pisano is not the only patient to undergo a surgical transplant under the protocol.
Last month, 62-year-old Rick Slayman had a pig kidney transplant, making him the first human to receive an animal organ transplant.
The four-hour operation took place on March 16 at Mass General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
The 62-year-old lived with diabetes and high blood pressure and was a regular patient at the hospital for more than a decade before the major surgery.
It’s not just about keeping someone alive, it’s about restoring them to their lives.
Dr. Robert Montgomery
Slayman was on dialysis for years before receiving a human kidney transplant in 2018, but it failed within five years.
After the surgery, the hospital released a statement saying Slayman was making a stable recovery, walking and was expected to be released soon.
Joren C. Madsen, director of the MGH Transplant Center, said Slayman was “the real hero,” according to Interesting engineering.
“[The surgery] It would not have been possible without your courage and willingness to embark on a journey through unknown medical history,” he said.
“Mr. Slayman becomes a beacon of hope for countless people suffering from end-stage kidney disease and opens a new frontier in organ transplantation.”
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