UMN surgeons perform region's first 'breathing lung' transplant

pioneer press ^ | 11-20-13 | Chris Snowbeck

[TurboZamboni]

In most lung transplants, organs from a cadaver donor are placed on ice and thawed at the site of the transplantation surgery. But with the new technology, doctors use a device that pumps blood and oxygen through the lungs during transportation to simulate conditions of the human body.

"It seemed in this case that it did" make a difference, Loor said. "The oxygen levels that we got back from our recipient when we were done with the procedure were the best that I'd ever seen."

The device -- called the TransMedics Organ Care System -- is being studied as part of two clinical trials in the U.S. It looks like a big box on wheels, with a compartment for the lungs as well as monitors that provide information about the organs' health.

Prior to this month procedure at the U, the system was used in transplant surgeries in Arizona, California and Pennsylvania, Loor said. Massachusetts-based TransMedics also is developing a "heart-in-the-box" technology to better preserve donated hearts, Loor said.

[Truth29]

Sounds like another medical advance that won’t be allowed by Obamacare. Obama will have transformed the US into a country where its citizens will have to travel to France for advanced medical procedures...

[knarf]

As a sufferer from emphasema, I occasionally dwell on the lung transplant thing, and pretty much accept I'll never get one because of my age.

DON'T SMOKE

[Coldwater Creek]

I have a real problem with folks that smoked themselves to death taking lungs that are needed by non-abusers.

[knarf]

Yeah ... that too.

[tet68]

Sounds like another medical advance that won’t be allowed by Obamacare.

Actually, Obama has a team working on “Brain in a box”
even as we speak...