organ transplantation
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NYU Doctors Perform First-Ever Pig Kidney Transplant Combined With Heart Pump Implant
Another milestone in pig-to-human transplantation has been crossed, with doctors at New York University Langone today announcing the world’s first combination pig kidney and heart pump transplant. The recipient is a 54-year-old woman named Lisa Pisano who was diagnosed with terminal kidney disease and heart failure. The concept of animal-to-human organ transplantation, or xenotransplantation, has…
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After First Setback, Second Pig Heart Transplant Provokes Cautious Optimism
58-year-old Lawrence Faucette has become a medical milestone this month, being only the second living person in the world to have received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig. His doctors at the University at Maryland School of Medicine say that Faucette appears to be doing well and that his new heart is functioning…
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Experimental Transplant Procedure Allows 3 Kids to Live Without Immune-Suppressing Drugs
Doctors appear to have found a way for some organ transplant recipients to avoid lifelong immune-suppressing drugs. In new research this week, they detail how three children with a rare genetic condition were given a dual bone marrow and kidney transplant in hopes of completely avoiding immune rejection. And up to three years later, the…
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A Pig Virus May Have Killed First Recipient of Transplanted Pig Heart
Evidence of a virus that infects pigs was found in the body of David Bennet Sr., the recipient of a genetically modified pig heart in an experimental transplant surgery. Bennet died in March at 57 years old, two months after undergoing the last-resort operation, which was the first of its kind ever performed.