The study, published online recently in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine, chronicles the life-saving measures used in 2010 to save the 71-year-old, who received the donor heart in 2003. He had also received a pacemaker in 2001. The heart was implanted in a heterotopic procedure, which means the patient keeps his heart and receives a donor heart.
The new heart is connected to the original organ to create a double heart, which offers some advantages: it offers the old heart a chance to recover, and if the donor heart is rejected and fails, it can be removed. The procedure, which dates back to the 1970s, is typically done when the original heart is too weak to work by itself or the donor heart is a different size than the patient's original heart. It's done less frequently nowadays, due to new surgical techniques and better immunosuppressive drugs.
0 COMMENTS:
Post a Comment