NHS says animal-human transplants not yet everyday reality
By Gemma Raw
NHS Blood and Transplant have congratulated the US surgical team who carried out a transplant of a pig heart into a human patient, while cautioning that everyday use of the technique is still some way off. Medical history was made in January. Surgeons in the USA reported that a man with terminal heart disease was successfully implanted with a genetically modified pig heart. The 57-year-old underwent the seven-hour surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Scientists and doctors across the world have hailed the operation as a major step forward in the quest to find new sources of transplant organs. However, experts in the UK cautioned against over-optimism.
"Recently through the culmination of years of research, we have seen important steps forward, and this latest development makes the possibility of transplantation between animals and humans a potentially safe and 'attainable' future treatment option," commented a spokesman for NHS Blood and Transplant. "However, there is still some way to go before transplants of this kind become an everyday reality."
A long road
The idea of transplanting animal organs into humans is not new. The possibilities of 'Xenotransplantation', to use its scientific name, have been discussed and explored by doctors and medical researchers for decades. However, real progress has been relatively slow, with a number of negative factors holding things back, including cost, immunosuppression issues and genetic engineering challenges.
On hearing the news of the surgery in Maryland, heart failure specialist Douglas Mann of the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis referred to a quote from heart transplant pioneer Norman Shumway: “Xenotransplantation is the future, and always will be.”
“After something like this, there's going to be this huge swell of enthusiasm and you'll have everybody and their uncle getting into the xenotransplant business or be excited about it,” observed Dr Mann. “And then the reality of it kind of dampens people's spirits a little bit, because maybe in other places they'll get acute rejection or patients won't do so well.”
The importance of organ donation
While there can be no doubt about the significance of this groundbreaking operation, NHS Blood and Transplant are keen to emphasise the continued importance of human organ donation. Although many successful transplant operations are carried out each year, there are still not enough donor organs to help all those in need.
"While researchers and clinicians continue to do our best to improve the chances for transplant patients, we still need everyone to make their organ donation decision and let their family know what they want to happen if organ donation becomes a possibility," said the spokesman.
According to the British Hearth Foundation, a staggering 7.6 million people are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK. NHS Blood and Transplant reported that, in 2019-20, 174 heart transplants were performed in the UK. However, on 31 March 2020, there were still 340 patients waiting for transplants, 16% more than the previous year and 162% more than ten years earlier.
Specialist nursing roles play an important part in the organ donation process. Specialist Nurses Organ Donation (SNODs) support potential donor families, exploring the individual's decision or the family's wishes, and providing specific donation information tailored to the individual case.
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