By Birgit Buerkner
It is the only chance for hundreds of people to survive. But fewer and fewer are willing to donate organs. Charité professor Georg Lurje (44) and his team have played a leading role in developing a new technology to be able to transplant previously damaged and older organs in a life-saving manner.
A look at the statistics shows that the number of organ donors is decreasing every year. In 2022 there were 43 in Berlin, in the previous years 49 and 52. On the other hand, there are more than 400 in Berlin and more than 300 in Brandenburg waiting for a new kidney, liver, lung, pancreas or heart.
The Charité specialists have found a solution to save as many lives as possible with the few organs available. They pimp her!
“We connect them to a machine and prepare them,” explains Lurje, Senior Physician at the Surgical Clinic at the Virchow Clinic (Wedding). “In this way we can successfully use many organs that are not suitable for transplantation.”
Blood flows through the donor organ for about five hours Photo: Charity
For example, a fatty liver from an overweight donor or a damaged liver from an alcohol consumer, organs from people over the age of 70 and those from patients with viral infections (hepatitis, corona) or calcified vessels.
On the perfusion machine, the organs are flushed with blood, among other things. “First of all, we can check their functionality and reduce the risk of serious complications such as cardiac arrest in the recipient,” says Lurje.
The second effect: “The metabolism is started like an engine. As a result, the cells regenerate and their energy stores fill up.” In five hours on the machine, the turbo process prepares the organs for better function after the transplantation.
Prof. Lurje connects a donor liver lying in the bowl to the hoses of the machine Photo: Stefanie Herbst
The result is impressive: Lurje and his team were able to increase the number of liver transplants by a third, for example, and their center has the best overall patient survival rate in Germany, despite the implantation of poorer donor organs.
