Tuesday, September 1, 2015

‘Heart in a box’ keeps beating until transplanted

A device that reanimates organs taken from dead patients has shown promise in heart transplant surgeries, though it's raising some ethical concerns, as well. As MIT Technology Review reports, the so-called "heart in a box" uses tubing and oxygen to pump blood and electrolytes into hearts from recently deceased patients, allowing the organs to continue functioning within a chamber. The system, developed by Massachusetts-based Transmedics, has been successfully deployed in at least 15 heart transplants in the UK and Australia, and is awaiting regulatory approval in the US.

Until now, hearts used for transplants have usually been extracted from brain-dead patients; those from dead patients have been considered too damaged. Once removed,...

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