Simple solution to aid heart transplants
An innovative method to keep a donor’s heart healthy while awaiting transplants through a special solution adding oxygen and nutrients has been developed at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital and may be used later this year.
Professor Frank Rosenfeldt, head of the hospital’s cardiothoracic surgical research, said that keeping donor hearts viable over longer periods was vital to the success of Australia’s heart transplant program. He tested a new system with the solution and introduced it into the hearts of large animals.
“I didn’t think it would work. It was just too simple. I’ve been working on preserving hearts, mainly for surgery, for most of my research life. I thought I would give this a try, and it was amazing just how effective it was,” Professor Rosenfeldt said.
The Alfred’s transplant program director, Professor Don Esmore, said the “perfusion” system showed great potential for preserving hearts from marginal donors in particular, including those with problems such as diabetes or those who were some distance from the recipient.
“What’s happened now is the donor age over the past 20 years has probably gone up by a median of about 10 years. We very commonly transplant hearts from people over the age of 50 and getting up towards 60, and still get reasonable results. But we do know that the older the donor heart is, the more likely it is that it will fail,” Professor Esmore said.
