Why transplants use imperfect organs

Many people pledge to donate their organs when they die. This is not only an act of kindness but it is almost godly. Possible Risks Organ transplants require surgery. These surgeries are always invasive. There are substantial risks of organ transplants.

There are case studies where people have died even after a successful organ transplant. The Uncertain Wait The waiting for an organ can be painful. Those time constraints mean medics have to make quick judgments about the suitability of donated organs. Vital Signs.

Share this on:. We're not in the luxurious position in transplantation to turn down organs because they're not absolutely perfect.

Most Popular. Fine art from an iPhone? They self-report to the government success rates without any way to tell how many potential donations were left behind, or why. And current rules give little incentive for retrieving less-than-perfect organs, such as those from older donors. For the first time, that would allow Medicare to rank OPO performance.

Verma estimated the change could spark another 5, transplants a year. A study by University of Pennsylvania researchers had estimated that a better-functioning system could yield as many as 28, additional organs.

Deceased donors make up most transplants but people lucky enough to receive a kidney or part of a liver from a living donor not only cut their wait, but those organs tend to survive longer. Researchers estimated in a study in Transplantation that more transplants could be performed in the United States each year if patients and their families had a better understanding of the outcomes when asked if they would be willing to accept an increased risk organ. Potentially viable organs can also be discarded because they sustain damage during retrieval or transport.

For the last 50 years, organs have been submerged in a carefully prepared electrolyte solution and then put on ice during transport, but this icing and rewarming process can do irreversible damage. Hearts and lungs are particularly vulnerable, since they can only survive four to six hours outside the body. By comparison, livers are viable for 12 to 15 hours after being harvested, and kidneys can last up to 24 hours.

To reduce tissue damage, researchers at the Duke University School of Medicine are working with the makers of several ex vivo perfusion devices to perfect a machine that can mimic the environment of the human body. Rather than storing an organ on ice, ex vivo perfusion stores it at the same temperature as the human body while nutrient-rich blood taken from the donor pumps through it.

Debra Sudan, MD, professor of surgery and division chief of abdominal surgery at Duke, is the principal investigator of the liver transplant trial, and she believes ex vivo perfusion will become standard practice within a few years.