Jun 1, 2022
Organ Transplant Breakthrough Shows Human Liver Can Survive Outside The Body For Days
Posted by Paul Battista in categories: biotech/medical, innovation
When a donor organ becomes available to someone in need of a transplant, medical personnel need to act quickly. It only takes a few hours for expanding ice crystals to damage delicate tissue, leaving a window of less than 12 hours to assess, transport, and implant the new organ.
This not only creates a tremendous time crunch to perform a delicate procedure, but leaves many organs unviable for transplantation.
But a new breakthrough could vastly improve the landscape of liver transplantation: Scientists kept a liver preserved for three days, in non-frozen conditions, before transplanting it into a patient.
