Surgeons keep man alive without lungs, paving new path to transplant
“Just one day after we took out the lungs, his body started to get better because the infection was gone.”
After 48 hours, the patient was stable enough to proceed with a double-lung transplant. Two years later, he is back to his regular routine.
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“The patient is doing remarkably well,” Dr. Bharat said. “He has excellent lung function, his heart function is preserved and he is completely functionally independent.”
This was the first successful application of this specific type of system, according to the medical team.
The medical team designed a “total artificial lung system” that maintained blood flow to the heart until the transplant could be placed. (Northwestern Medicine)
“While the concept of removing lungs and bridging to transplant has been attempted in rare cases historically, those prior attempts faced significant limitations regarding blood flow management and the risk of clots,” Bharat told Fox News Digital.
“Our system is novel because it includes a self-regulating ‘shunt’ that mimics the natural physics of the lung to protect the heart, and it uses dual return tubes to maintain normal blood flow through the left heart chambers.”
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In a case study, which was published last week in the Cell Press journal Med, experts revealed a “molecular analysis” of the removed lungs, showing extensive scarring and damage. This supports the idea that in some severe cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome, transplantation may be the only viable option.
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Researchers hope that the TAL system could eventually be a viable strategy for patients who are waiting for donor lungs — specifically, those with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) along with necrotizing pneumonia or septic shock.
The patient’s new transplant is shown at left, and his old lungs are shown at right. “This technology allows us to ‘clean the slate’ by removing the infection, stabilizing the patient and bridging them to a successful transplant,” the lead surgeon said. (Northwestern Medicine)
“These patients have a mortality rate exceeding 80% and are often turned down for transplant because they are too infected,” Dr. Bharat said. “This technology allows us to ‘clean the slate’ by removing the infection, stabilizing the patient and bridging them to a successful transplant.”
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In the future, he added, they hope to develop durable, implantable artificial lungs that patients can live with long-term, not just as a bridge to transplant.
Article source: https://www.foxnews.com/health/surgeons-keep-man-alive-without-lungs-paving-new-path-transplant