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A team of London doctors have delivered a Canadian medical first, using a new transplant technique that may save more lives and increase the number of viable available to other patients.
Lawson Health Research Institute, the research arm of London’s hospitals, announced on Thursday that the technique – abdominal normothermic regional perfusion (A-NRP) – was used at London Health Sciences Centre to take organs from two donors in April, resulting in two kidneys and two livers going to four recipients.
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Officials describe A-NRP as a technique that a special pump to restore organ blood flow, which preserves the donor’s abdominal organs from damage after circulatory death – when the heart stops beating – since oxygen and blood flow stop.
Organ donation after circulatory death has “historically been less reliable” than after brain death, a challenge given the ongoing shortage of willing donors and available organs, said Dr. Anton Skaro, surgical director of liver transplantation at London Health Sciences Centre.
“Unfortunately, we do not have enough donated organs to match the number of patients waiting for transplantation,” Skaro said in a statement. “By protecting the quality of organs after circulatory death, A-NRP could help significantly increase the number of available donor organs to save more lives.”
The research team led by Skaro is studying the use of special pumps to ensure it’s safe for donors. The plan is to include as many as 30 donors in their study.
“This work would not be possible without the collaborative efforts of a multidisciplinary team who have expertise in neurocritical care, perfusion, critical care, ethics, donation and transplant,” Skaro said, adding that upon the study’s completion the goal is to expand the technique to other transplant centres throughout Canada.
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