Beating heart transplant performed

Conventional technology keeps organs waiting to be transplanted in a cold, ischemic and non-functioning state. The low temperature method means there are severe time limitations – the maximum storage time for a heart is only four to six hours. Furthermore, an organ may be damaged by this method and surgeons do not have an opportunity of seeing the organ functioning.

Advances of the kind represented by the new technology used at Papworth Hospital are needed if a reduction is to be made in the number of patients dying while waiting for new organs.

Currently more than 8,000 people in the UK need an organ transplant, but due to a severe shortage of donated organs, fewer than 3,000 transplant operations are performed annually and about 400 people die each year while waiting for a suitable organ to become available. It was recently noted that there were 104 people including nine children registered for a heart transplant in the UK. A further 43 patients, including two children, were waiting for a combined heart and lung transplant. In the year 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, a total of 146 people received a heart or heart and lung transplant, down from 170 during 2004-05.