Livers are excellent organs for transplantation, but only if they’re delivered fresh to the recipient before succumbing from a lack of oxygen or getting damaged by cold preservation.
A new device from OrganOx of Oxford, UK that was designed and developed by Team Consulting of Cambridge, UK has now been used at King’s College Hospital to successfully maintain donor livers for up to 10 hours through temperature controlled perfusion of oxygenated red blood cells, and by providing close monitoring of the organ.
Once connected to the OrganOx metra device and supplied with blood and nutrients, the livers were observed making bile and were then successfully transplanted into patients. More work needs to be done in clinical trials, but the researchers involved in the project expect being able to preserve livers outside the body for up to 24 hours prior to implant.
Here’s video of the first liver being connected to the OrganOx metra system:
Product page: OrganOx metra…
Press releases: First autonomous liver preservation system enters clinical trials