a heart transplanted into a patient after being preserved for 12 hours, a world first

The patient, a 70-year-old man, is doing well. This success offers the hope of being able to free ourselves further from time constraints in the future, because normally current techniques only allow a heart to be preserved for two to four hours.

This is a world first, and it brings hope. A heart taken in the West Indies was able to be transplanted after a 12-hour plane trip, an exceptional shelf life. The transplant took place in Paris last January, and was the subject of a publication in the prestigious medical journal Lancet. Three months later, the transplanted patient, a 70-year-old man, is doing well, confirmed, Tuesday April 9, Professor Guillaume Lebreton, thoracic surgeon at Pitié-Salpêtrière, who coordinated this transplant. He went to retrieve the precious graft on the other side of the Atlantic, 6,700 km from Paris.

Normally, current techniques only allow a heart to be preserved for two to four hours at most, because unlike other organs, the heart is very resistant to the cessation of blood circulation. But here, it is the use of a new technique for preserving the graft, as part of a pilot test, which allowed it to cross the Atlantic. This heart transplant traveled in a large box, which looks like a cooler, but which is totally innovative. It not only allows the heart to be cooled to eight degrees, the optimal storage temperature, but also to transfuse it. In this case, even if the heart is no longer beating, a pump constantly supplies it with blood and oxygen.

This technique allows it to be kept three times longer. The medical team was therefore able to repatriate this graft from the Antilles, on a classic Air France flight, which was unthinkable until now.

Better plan transplants

This success offers the hope of being able to free ourselves further from time constraints, explains Professor Lebreton, and to have access to more donors geographically. With this preservation technique, all organ transplants, not just the heart, could be better planned.

Unfortunately, organ donation does not cover all needs. Concerning the heart for example, there is one gift for two recipients. In general, the number of transplants increased last year in France, with 5,000 transplants in total. Kidney and liver transplants are the most common, but despite this, almost 22,000 people are still on the waiting list.