20.02.2010 - Using a specially developed cabinet they have been able to “recover” a lung which was damaged whilst the donor suffered a fatal heart attack.

During heart attacks the lungs often become filled with fluid or swell which make them unsuit­able for donation and so far the majority of lung transplants have been from donors who have died from strokes or other brain malfunctions.

The technique has been denominated ‘ex vivo’ and it’s the first time that it has been possible anywhere in the world to recover and successfully transplant the lungs of a donor who has died from a heart attack.

The cabinet restores the lungs and keeps them working outside the body through a system which completely simulates the conditions inside the chest cavity.  The lungs are maintained at 37 degrees temperature connected to tubes containing a liquid similar to blood, oxygen and an exit tube for carbon dioxide.  If any infection is present this can also nor­mally be filtered out.  The lungs stay in the cabinet for eight hours whilst they are evaluated and swellings or lobular flattening are corrected

So far there have been two successful operations, both on sufferers of em­physema, caused by smok­ing and the lungs which are known to be the least lasting of the organs, were outside the body 22 and 19 hours respectively.  The head of chest surgery, Andrés Varela, believes that this time may be cut down in future, except in the cases of seriously damaged organs.

The technique has been used in Sweden, Canada and England, but only for the lungs of people who died from brain problems, “now we can work with lungs that were impossible to use before and we can increase the number of transplants by 25 per cent,” assured Varela.

The Madrid specialists believe they will be able to use the same technique to genetically alter or­gans outside the human organism to reduce the possibilities of rejection.  Javier Moradiellos, the person responsible for the ex vivo project believes that when the technique becomes cheaper it will be used to assess all lungs for transplants, whether or not they look damaged and he believes that with modifications, the same system could be used for heart and kidney trans­plants.



This article appears in the print edition 610 of Island Connections

Gallery: More lung transplants

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