X-Message-Number: 33104
From: 
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 23:09:36 EST
Subject: Transplant hearts kept healthy with circulating blood

Content-Language: en


_http://www.livescience.com/health/etc/101205-beating-heart-transplants-offe
r-hope-patients.html_ 


(http://www.livescience.com/health/etc/101205-beating-heart-transplants-offer-hope-patients.html)
 
Hearts removed from a body for transplant are being kept healthy for  
longer by being supplied with circulating blood. This raises the question of  

whether something similar could be done for the brain, while moving patients to
 CI -- or heads to Alcor. Combined with immediate cooling as in cold water  
drowning, this might get it to perfusion almost recoverable. To avoid the  
weirdness of having the "dead" brain become conscious there should be 

anesthetic  in the circulating fluid. Getting a physician to start the procedure
immediately  upon pronouncing death is, uh, left as an exercise for the 
student. ;-)
 
But seriously, if it works for hearts and if the apparatus is available,  
then why not brains?
 
Alan Mole
 
The pertinent part of the article:
 
 
While traditional transplants involve an ischemic  heart, in which no blood 
is circulating, transported in an icebox (and with a  shelf life of just 
four to six hours), the beating heart transplant relies on a  special box that 
feeds the heart blood, keeping it warm and throbbing outside  the body.  
The first beating-heart transplant in the United States  was completed on 
April 8, 2007, on a 47-year-old man with congestive heart  failure and 

pulmonary hypertension at the University of Pittsburgh School of  Medicine 
(UPMC). 
 
"This study presents an exciting opportunity to apply  the latest medical 
technology to help patients receive lifesaving transplants,"  said the 
surgeon Kenneth R. McCurry, assistant professor of surgery, division of  
cardiothoracic surgery at UPMC.  
"By maintaining the organ in near perfect physiologic  state, the OCS will 
reduce injury and help extend the life of these organs,  which also will 
improve patient outcomes with less rejection and shorter length  of ICU and 
hospital stay," McCurry said in a statement at the time of that  surgery, 
referring to the Open Care System device that keeps the heart pumping  outside 
the body. 
If the new technology shows success, it could change  the field of organ 
transplants, the AP reports. Transplant recipients wouldn't  be limited by 
location, since the cooler method can only keep a heart for a  limited amount 
of time. The technology could also help to ease the _organ shortage crisis_ 
(http://www.livescience.com/health/organ-donation-decline-100322.html) , as 
some 3,000  Americans are currently waiting for a heart transplant. Last 
year, 359 died  waiting for a heart " almost one person a day, the AP reports.
 


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