Australia advances heart transplantation survival rate

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Hold onto your seats STEMGEEKS because Australia has once again unlocked another achievement which will change the world of medical science and the way heart transportations are currently done. This trial is being conducted in Australia and reported on by XVIVO which you can see a brief snippet here

First of all lets do a bit of a background on what is what and who is who. Someone currently requiring a heart transplant and waiting on a donor typically has 4 hours to get it from the person donating it to the person needing it. it is typically transported in an esky with ice to keep it alive otherwise the heart quickly dies and becomes unfeasible to be given to another person. This is referred to Ischemic time source.

But the good people over at XVIVO have developed a heart preservation method currently undergoing trials and studies. You have to admit you'd have to be pretty game to sign up to this clinical study knowing that if it didn't work you're most likely not waking up again.

But alas some heroic chap or chapette has put their life on the line to advance medical science and leave the world in a better place then which they were born into it. Fortunately for them and us the gamble paid off with a roaring success.

This beautiful machine prolongs a heart up to 8 hours by inserting it into a machine which pumps a solution called perfusate into the heart keeping it cooled to 8 degrees Celsius and oxygenated. Now proved successful this means that donor hearts can be transported to more people further away. The time to date is around 8 hours and noting that the record for survival under the old method is 7 hours it is most likely without a doubt that this machine could easily extend beyond the 8 hour range source.

A team of doctors at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne report that the patients (yes there have been multiple) all have recovered well and Professor David Kaye, director of cardiology and co-principal investigator at the Alfred hospital noted that they have recovered well, which they believe is attributed to the fact that the heart provided was well oxygenated and maintained during the transportation with the use of perfusate.

This is all attributed to four years of clinical studies undertaken by Critical Care Research Group (CCRG) in Brisbane and further studies and trials are under way across Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Fiona Stanley Hospital Perth with the Alfred already using the method on 5 patients.

The studies are tipped to revolutionise the way heart transplants are done around the globe and increase the amount currently undertaken. According to XVIVO the lack of hearts available and the safe time of 4 hours limits how many heart transplants can be conducted annually. If this trial proves highly successful and increases patient survival rates and prolongs the length of time a heart can remain out of the body than it will transform the way heart transplants are done and increase survival rates and lower complications of future recipients source

That's another win for science!

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