Replacing the cold preservation technique and keeping the organ (liver) alive up to 24 hours after it has been removed from the donor, OrganOx, a company spun out of the University of Oxford and its partner in India, Duraent Lifesciences have come up with a new state-of-the-art liver transplant technology which was unveiled in the city on Thursday.
The procedure is called Normothermic Machine Perfusion (NMP), which pumps oxygenated blood and nutrients into the liver and helps in overcoming the risk of graft injuries associated with preservation in ice.
Being deployed for the first time in India and Asia, the machine will help livers donated by brain-dead people survive longer and enable doctors to test how well they function while on the machine prior to transplant, thereby boosting the chances of successful transplantations.
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‘For safer transplant’
Speaking on the occasion, A.S. Soin, chairman and chief surgeon, Medanta Institute of Liver Transplantation, and Scientific Advisor to OrganOx (Oxford, UK), said, “The machine is one of the most important advances in organ transplantation in the last 20 years. Livers maintained on the NMP prior to transplant will work better, making the transplants safer.”
He also said that this technology will help in transporting the liver easily from one place to the other.
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Rervival
“Many of the organs that we had turned down for transplant purposes due to mild damage, can now be revived using this technology. We hope that with NMP now available in India, 30% more transplants will be possible, with improved results,” he said.
The first transplant in India took place last month at Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru. The patient (56) made a quick recovery and was discharged in a couple of weeks.
‘Will prevent damage’
Subith Kumar, CEO, Duraent Lifesciences, Hyderabad, said, “Earlier, the harvested livers were flushed with preservation fluid and then stored on ice, at times resulting in damage of the cells, especially when preserved for more than 10-12 hours.”
Mr. Kumar also said, “With this new technology doctors will get livers for transplantation without damage [of cells].”