First-ever simultaneous heart and liver transplant in Spain is a success
Thursday, January 27, 2022 @ 8:17 PM
A DOUBLE transplant of a heart and liver in the same operation has been carried out successfully in Spain, saving the life of a woman who was terminally ill, according to the team at Madrid's Gregorio Marañón Hospital.
The 12-hour procedure, involving 30 professionals, was conducted after the patient had undergone surgery known as 'Fontan', which involves separating the blood circulation in the body from that of the lungs.
It is typically performed on people who, like the woman in question, are born with just one ventricle, or 'heart chamber', instead of two.
Healthy humans and animals have two ventricles – one to pump 'new' blood around the system, and the other to collect up 'old' blood once it has finished pumping.
'Fontan' surgery is life-saving where it works, but can cause liver damage over time – and, if it does not work, both organs will fail.
The woman operated on was in this situation, and her only hope of even short-term survival was a liver and heart transplant.
Both needed to be performed at once, as one transplant followed by another would result in certain death – but only a small handful of hospitals in the world have the experience required to carry out such a delicate and complex procedure.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com