First pig kidney transplant completed

First pig kidney transplant completed
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full screen A kidney from a pig has been transplanted into a human. Archive image. Photo: Tore Meek/NTB Scanpix/TT

Surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital have succeeded in transplanting a pig kidney into a living human for the first time.

The four-hour long operation was carried out on Saturday on a 62-year-old man who had a life-threatening kidney disease.

Last fall, an attempt was made to transplant a genetically modified pig kidney into the body of a brain-dead man in the United States. The pig kidney worked for over a month.

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