The doctors involved in the trial declared the transplant a success after the first man to receive one.
David Bennett, 57 years old, was granted the genetically modified porcine hearts on January 7, after an emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on New Year’s Eve.
Bennett was in hospital for six weeks after suffering from a life-threatening arrhythmia. He had also been connected to a heart bypass machine. Bennett was not eligible for a traditional transplant because he was already in advanced heart failure.
He died two months later.
According to a press release, doctors involved in the University of Maryland Medicine Study published a paper last year that stated that heart failure can be caused by a complex array of factors.
His progress was remarkable when the heart was transplanted for the first time. Bartley Griffith, a University of Maryland School of Medicine transplantation professor, said that his heart was strong and almost too strong to support his frail body. But he still had the will to live.
Griffith, the school’s clinical director for the cardiac xenotransplantation clinic, stated that autopsy results did not indicate rejection. We saw thickening and stiffening of heart muscle, leading to diastolic cardiac failure. This means that the heart muscle is unable to relax and fill the body with blood.
According to the school, the drug, which is supposed to protect against rejection and infection but could have caused the heart to fail, may have also damaged the muscle.
The release stated that the heart also contained evidence of DNA from a porcine cytomegalovirus, (pCMV), through sensitive testing. This was confirmed by autopsy. The virus may have caused the heart to become infected.
Before the transplant, infection control measures were in effect and the heart was tested shortly before. However, the autopsy confirmed that there was an infection.
Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, study leader, said that “we consider this to have been an important learning experience.” “We will change some of our techniques and practices in the future, knowing what we know now.”
As organ replacement demands rise, Xenotransplants (the term for transplants from non-human species to humans) have been investigated. The FDA estimates that 10 people die each day waiting for a donor organ.
According to Harvard University Medical School, valve replacements have been made with cow and pig tissues. These valves last for about 15 years, and they don’t need to be treated with anti-clotting drugs. A mechanical valve can last for the rest of your life.
