London doctors test new transplant technique in Canadian first

A team of London doctors has delivered a Canadian medical first, using a new transplant technique that may save more lives by increasing the number of viable organs available to patients.

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Lawson Health Research Institute, the research arm of London’s hospitals, announced on Thursday that the technique – abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (A-NRP) – was used at London Health Sciences Centre to take organs from two donors in April, resulting in two kidneys and two livers going to four recipients.

Officials describe A-NRP as a technique that uses a special pump to restore organ blood flow, which preserves the donor’s abdominal organs from damage after circulatory death – when the heart stops beating – since oxygen and blood flow stop.

Organ donation after circulatory death has “historically been less reliable” than after brain death, a challenge given the ongoing shortage of willing donors and available organs, said Dr. Anton Skaro, surgical director of liver transplantation at London Health Sciences Centre.

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“Unfortunately, we do not have enough donated organs to match the number of patients waiting for transplantation,” Skaro said in a statement. “By protecting the quality of organs after circulatory death, A-NRP could help significantly increase the number of available donor organs to save more lives.”

The groundbreaking technique to preserve the organs involves placing a tube into the aorta, the body’s main artery, and its central vein in the vena cava. The tube then brings blood from the body into a pump, Skaro said, which restores nutrients and oxygen to the organs, and the pump pushes the blood back into the artery.

“We’re very keen to scale this to the rest of the country,” Skaro said. “There’s already tremendous interest on behalf of all the other provinces’ transplant communities, so there will be a plan to scale it very quickly.”

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Among those excited by the breakthrough was Londoner Jillian Best, 37, the First organ transplant survivor to swim Lake Ontarioin 2021.

“The journey of giving back has been a deeply personal journey,” Best said. “I’m looking forward to continuing the mission with my foundation to continue to save and improve lives.”

The research team led by Skaro is studying the use of special pumps to ensure it is safe for donors. The plan is to include as many as 30 donors in their study.

“This technique will improve the number of organs and the quality of those organs for transplantation. These organs will be made available to adults and children, and this is absolutely a game changer,” Skaro said.

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