Special device keeps liver ‘alive’ outside body for up to 24 hours

Using technology developed at the University of Oxford, doctors have kept a liver “alive” outside a human being and then successfully transplanted it into a patient in need of a new liver. According to a news release from the University of Oxford, the procedure has been performed on two patients on the liver transplant waiting list at King’s College Hospital.

Donor organs are typically preserved by putting them “on ice” to slow their metabolism. Unfortunately, this process can damage the organs. The new device, however, could keep a functioning liver alive outside the body for 24 hours. The device allows the liver to function normally just like it would inside a human body. In fact, the liver regains its color and produces bile as the device raises it to body temperature and circulates oxygenated red bloods cells through its capillaries.

The success of the first two transplants suggests that the device could be used for other patients on the liver transplant waiting list. Researchers believe that the special device could also double the number of organs available for transplant by preserving livers that would otherwise be tossed aside.
According to Professor Constantin Coussios of Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, the device is the “very first completely automated liver perfusion device of its kind.” He added that watching a cold grey liver fill with color when connected to the device was “astounding.” Doctors only needed to keep the liver alive for up to 10 hours in the first two experiments, but they have demonstrated that the device can keep a liver alive for up to 24 hours.

According to the news release, Coussios and Professor Peter Friend, of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and Director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, have been studying the technology for nearly two decades.

‘Transplant surgery is a victim of its own success with far more people needing transplants than there are donor organs available,” said Friend, adding, that the device could “bring benefit to a large number of patients awaiting transplants.” He also noted that the new technology will allow doctors to determine how well an organ is performing before having to decided whether to transplant the liver into a patient.

According to the American Liver Foundation, more than 6,000 liver transplants are performed each year in the United States. Liver transplant surgery typically takes between four and twelve hours. Liver transplants require that the blood type and body size of the donor match the person receiving the donated liver.

News Source: natmonitor.com