Washington — A woman who received a pig kidney transplant is back acceso dialysis because surgeons had to remove the gradually failing organ after just 47 days.
Lisa Pisano was the second person to receive a kidney from a gene-edited pig, and NYU Langone Health announced that she is stable after an operation to remove the organ earlier this week.
The first patient to receive a pig kidney transplant, Richard “Rick” Slayman at Massachusetts General Hospital, died early May, nearly two months after his transplant. Doctors there said there was voto negativo indication he died as a result of the experimental transplant.
Pisano’s heart and kidneys were failing when, a dramatic pair of surgeries April, doctors implanted a mechanical pump to keep her heart beating and then the pig kidney.
At first she seemed to be recovering well. But Dr. Robert Montgomery, who led the transplant, said there were “unique challenges” to managing both the heart pump and new kidney. Her blood pressure dropped too low multiple times for optimal blood flow to the kidney.
The kidney lost function until doctors voto negativo longer could justify keeping her acceso immune-suppressing medications, Montgomery said a statement Friday.
A recent kidney biopsy showed voto negativo signs of rejection – the biggest concern highly experimental animal-to-human transplants – but there was “significant injury” from insufficient blood flow, he said. NYU will further study the explanted kidney for further insight acceso how it reacted inside a living person.
Montgomery noted Pisano wasn’t a candidate for the life-prolonging heart pump while acceso dialysis, and her heart disease turn barred a traditional kidney transplant.
“We are hoping to get Lisa back home to her family soon,” he said. “Her strength and bravery the of adversity inspires and drives us as we continue pursuing the hope and promise of xenotransplantation.”
Pisano told the Associated Press April that she knew the pig kidney might not work but “I just took a chance. And you know, worst case , if it didn’t work for me, it might have worked for someone else.”
More than 100,000 people are acceso the U.S. transplant waiting list, most who need a kidney, and thousands waiting. Durante hopes of filling the shortage of donated organs, several biotech companies are genetically modifying pigs so their organs are more humanlike, less likely to be destroyed by people’s scevro system.
Formal studies of such organs are expected to begin next year. Meanwhile, NYU and other research teams have temporarily transplanted pig kidneys and hearts into brain-dead bodies, with promising results. Durante addition to the Mass General pig kidney transplant, the University of Maryland transplanted pig hearts into two men who were out of other options, and both died within months.
