January 10, 2022
In a daunting task that gives hope to those waiting to be transplanted, the genetically engineered pig’s heart has been transformed into a 57-year-old man with a terminal heart disease.
The patient, David Bennett Sr., received the card Friday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Mu a publishing articles, the school called the procedure “extremely popular” and “the first implant.”
The operation took place after the FDA granted emergency permission to put it through a more sophisticated (compassionate use) method, the Medical Center said. Bennett was found to be unfit for human heart transplant because of his poor health, leaving the pig alone.
“It was dying or doing this. I want to live. I know I’m shooting in the dark, but it’s my last choice,” Bennett said a day before the operation, according to the release. I look forward to getting up when I recover.
“This was a very successful operation and it brought us closer to the problem of amputation. There are no hearts of donors to complete a long list of potential recipients,” said Bartley P. Griffith, MD, who has been a pig hearted.
“We are acting responsibly, but we also hope that the world’s first surgery will provide a new way for patients in the future.”
The United Network for Organ Sharing it is estimated that more than 106,000 people are on the waiting list for transplants since Monday. About 40,000 people received paralysis last year, and about 3,800 of them received a heart transplant. But due to paralysis, 17 people on the waiting list die every day, according to a US Health Resources and Services Administration.
Scientists hope that xenotransplantation – the transplantation of an organ from one gene to another – will reduce the size of the organ and prolong the life of people on the waiting list. Last October, a kidney size in a genetically modified pig was implanted in a dead man at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
The booster pig was raised as a result of this approach by Revivicor, a rehabilitation drug company in Blacksburg, Va.
The New York Times rstated that the pig had 10 genetic mutations to make the heart acceptable to man. Some of these modifications make the heart less active after implantation and make the organ more sensitive to the human immune system, The Times he said.
Last Friday, the surgeon removed the pig’s heart and placed it in a machine that he kept until he underwent surgery. The team also used a new drug developed by Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals to prevent the human body from reacting to the heart of pigs, a medical school said.
Bennett is being monitored closely at the hospital. He was still connected to a heart-lung transplant machine that kept him alive before he was implanted, but a new heart was working. The Times he said. Doctors said he should be removed from the machine by Tuesday.
“This is a water event,” David Klassen, MD, chief medical officer at United Network for Organ Sharing, told. The Times. “The doors are starting to open which is causing, I believe, a big change in the way we deal with organ failure.”
