05 June 2006 - UK's first beating-heart transplantDoctors have carried out a successful beating-heart transplant – the first of it’s kind in the UK . The 58 year-old male recipient received his new heart two weeks ago at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge and is said to be doing "extremely well". Professor Bruce Rosengard, who led the transplant team, said the operation was a success, the heart was working well and there were no signs of rejection. The new technique involves keeping a donated heart warm and beating throughout the procedure, rather than packing it in ice for transport. The process gives doctors more time to get the heart to the recipient, and could triple or even quadruple the number of heart transplants in the future. Donor hearts are normally given a high dose of potassium to stop them beating and are packed in ice helping to keep them in a state of ‘suspended animation’. However, the organ needs to be transplanted into the recipient within 4-6 hours. Under the new system, a machine keeps the heart beating with warm oxygenated blood flowing through it. This allows time for the heart to be examined for damage and increases the chance to better match the organ with a recipient. The heart can be kept outside the body longer and is in much better condition when it reaches the patient. In the longer term, other organs may be handled by this new system – particularly the liver.
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