PMID: 32675865Jul 18, 2020Paper

LIVER TRANSPLANTATION: WILL XENOTRANSPLANTATION BE THE ANSWER TO THE DONOR ORGAN SHORTAGE?

Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association
Robert L Carithers

Abstract

Since the first report of a successful liver transplant in 1968, access to this operation has dramatically improved. In 2018, 8,250 patients underwent liver transplantation in the United States. Despite this remarkable advance, a persistent shortage of donor organs remains the primary obstacle to optimal utilization of this life-saving operation. Over the past two decades, transplant professionals have pursued two broad strategies to overcome this roadblock: increasing the number of donor organs and decreasing the number of patients requiring transplantation through advances in medical interventions. Despite these efforts, more than 13,500 patients remained on liver transplant waiting lists at the end of 2018. Almost 1,200 died while waiting, and 1,350 were removed from wait lists because they had become too sick to survive the operation. Clearly, a dramatic new approach to the donor organ shortage is needed. One effort, first attempted by surgeons in the 1960s, was to utilize donor organs from other species (xenotransplantation). The major obstacle to xenotransplantation acceptance has been the fear of transmitting new infectious diseases from animals to humans. As the twentieth century came to a close, national moratoria on x...Continue Reading

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