Machine 'could quadruple' heart and lung transplants

The number of heart and lung transplants could quadruple thanks to a "reanimation" machine used in a pioneering operation, a hospital says.

The device, developed at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, managed to pump oxygenated blood into both organs in a world-first procedure. The machine can revitalise deteriorating organs allowing "donation after circulatory death" (DCD).

Hospital surgeon Pedro Catarino said it was like "recharging the batteries".

"It is reanimation and then it replenishes the energy stores of the heart, what we call reconditioning, which allows it be transplanted," he said. "We think it could at least double and perhaps quadruple the number of [heart and lungs] available for transplant."

He said it was desperately needed, adding: "Patients die on the waiting list every day."

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Source: BBC News, 23 March 2020