Posted on Feb 13, 2015 by Janene Van Jaarsveldt
Oil painting of a surgery (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Wellcome Library, London)
A “revolutionary” new transplant method now used by the University Medical Center in Groningen (UMCG) means that 10 to 20 percent more people can get a donor organ, RTL Nieuws reports.
A special department in the hospital can not only better preserve organs intended for transplant, but also “repair” them. In this department organs are treated with oxygen-rich liquid and nutrients, as if they were still in a living body, transplant surgeon Robert Porte said to the newspaper. This means that there will be more organs of a better quality available.
According to Porte, the past trial phase had promising results. He calls it a “revolution in transplantation medicine. The UMCG is the first hospital in the Netherlands to have an organ perfusion chamber. There are a few world wide, but according to the hospital, no other hospital can handle heat, lungs, liver and kidneys simultaneously.
Last year 271 people in the Netherlands donated their organs after their death. There were 1,300 patients waiting for organs. Porte believes that this new method will shorten the waiting list.
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