Heart in a box makes the donor heart beat again

The ‘heart in a box’ has also proven its worth in the Netherlands: thanks to the device, doctors have been able to transplant hearts from deceased donors for the first time.

In KIJK 11/2020 (‘Pepped organs’) Ian Alwayn, professor of transplant surgery at Leiden University Medical Center, explains that the quality of organs from people who are brain dead is the best – no matter how cruel that sounds. For that reason, heart donation was only possible if the donor had been declared brain dead.

But in 2020, 150 heart donors (out of 250 in total) died as a result of cardiac arrest, which prevented the organ from being transplanted. Donor hearts are therefore scarce. According to the Dutch Transplant Foundation, one in seven dies because a donor heart is not available on time. A so-called heart in a box, which scientists from the UMCs in Groningen, Utrecht and Rotterdam are researching, should change this.

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Heart in
a box

The device, developed by American scientists, warms the heart to body temperature and pumps oxygen, blood and a nutrient-rich liquid through it. As a result, the organ starts to beat again on its own. The three medical centers began testing the device on pig hearts in 2018. Then followed tests with human hearts. However, due to the corona pandemic, the research came to a standstill, heart-lung surgeon Michiel Erasmus of the UMCG told KIJK in 2020.

Now, a few months later, doctors have been able to ‘patch’ and transplant the hearts of deceased persons for the first time in the Netherlands. The donors had died of cardiac arrest. The heart in a box has also saved lives in England: six children between the ages of 12 and 16 had a heart transplant after the organ was charged with the device.

With medical technology, transplant surgeons expect that 40 extra donor hearts will become available every year. That is a doubling of the current number.