Many newborns die while waiting for heart transplants - Photo: REUTERS
Surgeons at Duke University in the US have resuscitated a "dead" heart on the operating table after it stopped beating for more than five minutes. With the consent of the donor's family, surgeons revived the heart on the operating table using an oxygen generator and a centrifugal pump.
The organ was then transplanted into the chest of a three-month-old baby to save his life. The child is now six months old and the donor heart he received still shows normal heart function, with no signs of rejection.
The story is proof that the concept of "resuscitation on the operating table" is effective in preserving hearts for transplantation, at least for newborns, according to Science Alert on July 21.
Today in the United States, up to 20% of newborns who need heart transplants die while waiting for an organ. Most donors must be declared brain dead before their organs are removed. Only 0.5% of pediatric heart transplants are performed after the heart has stopped beating and blood has stopped circulating.
Some critics say it is unethical to remove a patient's breathing tube from the terminal stage, restart the heart, and then remove it for transplant.
They argue that if a heart is resuscitated inside the donor's body, this would negate the definition of circulatory death (a condition in which the heart stops beating and blood circulation stops, leading to a cessation of the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the body's organs).
Duke University doctors say that performing cardiac resuscitation outside the body on the operating table would reduce ethical concerns. They also note that this approach could increase the number of donated organs by 30%.
Meanwhile, surgeons at Vanderbilt University (USA) have another idea to avoid the most common ethical concerns.
Instead of trying to revive the donor heart immediately, they preserved it. The team explains that by clamping the aorta and injecting it with a cooling solution, they were able to successfully revive three donor hearts for transplant.
By clamping off the heart's circulatory system, the team isolated their work from the donor's brain - something that often raises ethical concerns during resuscitation.
"Our technique only delivers an oxygenated preservation solution into the donor's heart, without the need for cardiac resuscitation and without the need for systemic or cerebral perfusion," the team explains.
The technique has shown good post-operative results. All three donor hearts were successfully transplanted with healthy heart function. The team believes that this method has the potential for widespread application.
Both the Duke University and Vanderbilt University studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
ANH THU
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tim-ra-2-cach-moi-giup-hoi-suc-tim-ben-ngoai-co-the-20250722105912367.htm
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