A new world first in the field of human heart transplant surgery has taken place after a donor heart was successfully transported across the Atlantic Ocean on a long-haul commercial aircraft.
The donor heart was stored for more than 12 hours at France’s Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital before being transplanted into a 70-year-old man, according to researchers who recently published their findings in the Lancet medical journal.
Authors Guillaume Lebreton and Pascal Leprince said transporting a human heart over 6,750 kilometers from the French West Indies to Paris was “a feat previously unimaginable for organ transplants”. .
This achievement was made possible by a special transport case that not only keeps the heart cool, but also keeps the organ supplied with oxygen during long journeys.
The doctors who arranged the heart’s transport from the French West Indies to Paris reserved a seat on the bus for the XVIVO Heart Assist Transport Module. Despite encountering severe turbulence, the flight was “eventful.”
“In recent years, the concept of using a machine that continuously delivers oxygenated fluid to the heart during transport has been evaluated in clinical trials,” LeBreton and LePrince explained.
“However, no studies have investigated extreme transport times (more than 10 hours).”
“This transplant has the potential to be a breakthrough in heart transplantation, allowing increased access to unused donor hearts. This allows hearts to be utilized and safely transported over long distances. ”LeBreton commented.
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