Doctors Perform First NY 'Ex Vivo' Lung Transplants

Medical Daily | Angela Tala

A doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center was the first in New York state and among the first in the U.S. to perform lung transplants that were assessed and reconditioned in the operation room, an ex vivo technique that could dramatically increase the availability of lungs for transplant.

The ex vivo technique uses oxygen, nutrients, and antibiotics, to assess and recondition donor lungs outside the body prior to transplantation.

The authors said that the “ev vivo” or outside-the-body approach involved removing lungs from a deceased donor, then enclosing them inside a transparent dome and connecting them to a cardiopulmonary pump and a ventilator.

The two women that received the transplanted ex vivo lungs were both from the New York metro area. One was age 59 and the other 60.
Read more: http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20111213/8240/lung-transplant-lungs-ex-vivo-ex-vivo-transplant-lung-surgery-frank-dovidio-new-york-presbyte.htm