Surgeons in the United States have recorded a ground breaking feat after they successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human patient and the organ worked for the first time in history.
The medical advancement, called a “transformative moment” by surgeons at a New York City hospital may one day lead to the use of animals to save thousands of people in need of organ transplants every year.
It was gathered that the two-hour procedure called “xenotransplantation” was done on September 25, at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
The kidney, which was obtained from a genetically engineered pig, was placed in a brain-dead human who had been placed on a ventilator with the consent of her family.
The kidney was attached to the blood vessels in the donor’s upper leg and kept outside the abdomen, where it was covered with a protective shield, for the duration of the 54-hour study.
Researchers observed that there were no signs of the body rejecting the organ, as the body was producing levels of urine and creatinine that were “normal and equivalent to what is seen from a human kidney transplant.”
Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the surgical team, said in a statement that the procedure was a “transformative moment in organ transplantation.”
What allowed this transplant to work, Montgomery said, was genetically engineering the donor pig so that it didn’t have the enzyme that the human body is designed to immediately attack.
The results of the study have not yet been peer-reviewed, but Montgomery said that this research could mean “that no one will need to die waiting for an organ anymore.”
KanyiDaily had also reported how a severe spinal condition made a 46-year-old man spent the last three decades of his life with his face pressed against his thighs.