(Lifestyle) Successfully transplanted a pig's heart into a man for the first time

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A team of surgeons from the University of Maryland performs the groundbreaking eight-hour operation on a 57-year-old patient with heart disease

It is a milestone for medicine. US surgeons transplanted the heart of a genetically modified pig into a human patient with terminal heart disease last Friday. David Bennett, 57, had run out of options for a regular transplant due to his conditions and the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, USA, decided to perform the extraordinary procedure for "compassionate reasons." Three days after the operation, the recipient is in good condition and under medical surveillance. The intervention opens new hope for all patients suffering from the dramatic shortage of human organs available for transplantation, reports El País.

Bennett knew there was no guarantee that the experimental surgery would work, his son told the Associated Press. “It was either dying or doing this transplant. He wanted to live. I knew there were few possibilities but it was my last option, "Bennett said a day before surgery, according to the statement released by the University of Maryland.

Although it is too early to know if the procedure will prolong the life of the patient, it is undoubtedly an enormous advance in the long quest to one day be able to transplant organs of animal origin and save human lives. Faculty at the University of Maryland Medical Center noted that the operation demonstrated that the heart of a genetically modified animal can function in the human body without immediate rejection.

The operation, which lasted eight hours, was carried out successfully last Friday. According to the institution, the transplant of a pig heart "was the only option available to the patient," since several hospitals had ruled out the possibility of a conventional transplant.

"If it works, then there will be an inexhaustible supply of these organs for suffering patients," said Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, scientific director of the university's xenotransplantation (from animals to humans) program. The problem in this type of operation is that the body of the patients quickly rejects the animal organs. One of the best known cases was recorded in 1984, when the baby known as Fae, a dying girl, survived 21 days with the heart of a baboon.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the operation of Bennett on New Year's Eve, who had been bedridden for months and was informed of the risks of the intervention, when treated of an experimental technique.

“It has been a revolutionary operation and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. There are not enough human donor hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients, ”said Bartley Griffith, doctor in charge of this surgical procedure.
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