Massachusetts General HospitalRick Slayman with partner and physicians
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 17:14
The American who became the first living human to receive a pig kidney has been released from hospital. Two weeks ago he received the organ during an operation at a university hospital affiliated with Harvard University.
The hospital said in a statement that the organ is working well and that the patient no longer needs dialysis. The patient, 62-year-old Rick Slayman, speaks of the happiest moments of his life. He had previously received a kidney from a human, but that organ no longer worked properly.
The successful pig kidney transplant is seen as a medical breakthrough. It can have major consequences for patients with kidney problems who are waiting for a donor organ. There is a shortage of human donors, resulting in long waiting lists. Organs from animals could offer a solution.
Genetically modified
That is why experiments have been going on for some time with so-called xenotransplantations, in which animal organs are used to heal people. But the results so far haven’t been very good.
Several patients who received a pig heart died shortly afterwards. The organs were rejected and another patient died from a virus carried by the pig.
The kidney that Slayman received has been genetically modified to ensure that the human body accepts the organ more easily after transplantation.
2024-04-04 15:14:26
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