NEWS AND VIEWS
18 April 2018
Life of a liver awaiting transplantation
Stefan Schneeberger
People waiting for a liver transplant can die before an organ is found, or, if one is available but of poor quality, there is a risk of transplant failure. A machine that preserves livers might offer a way forward.
The concept of machine perfusion of an organ awaiting transplantation is not new. Indeed, machine-assisted perfusion was in use before cold storage became the method of choice owing to its simplicity and reproducibility2. However, interest in revisiting perfusion as a transplant approach has been gaining momentum.
The main outcome monitored in the latest trial was the post-transplantation level of the enzyme aspartate transaminase in patients’ blood. This measurement is commonly used to assess liver damage and to estimate the risk of transplant failure. The authors found that the use of NMP was associated with less liver damage than that found in livers preserved on ice. Moreover, preservation by NMP reduced the number of organs that were discarded as unsuitable for transplantation compared with livers preserved on ice, and was associated with a better blood-flow profile in the recipient.
Continue reading: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04458-w
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