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UC Health performs first liver transplant in U.S. using mobile cold perfusion pump
In April 2019, transplant surgeons at UC Medical Center performed the first-ever liver transplant in the United States with an organ preserved with portable hypothermic machine perfusion, which circulates a specially-formulated solution through an organ prior to surgery rather than storing it on ice.
The transplant recipient was a 65-year-old Cincinnati man who was able to return home just four days post-surgery. Over the next six months, UC Health performed 39 more liver transplants with organs preserved by the cold perfusion method. The patient outcomes were positive, and surgeons noticed an improved organ quality.
“We are always striving for new and better ways to help save lives and improve patient outcomes,” said Shimul A. Shah, MD, the James and Catherine Orr Endowed Chair in Liver Transplantation, director of the Division of Transplantation and professor of surgery at the UC College of Medicine.
UC Medical Center was one of eight hospitals in the U.S. to participate in the multicenter clinical trial, which compared portable hypothermic machine preservation of donated livers with static cold storage prior to transplant. The randomized trial evaluated several aspects of the organ preservation process, including potential benefits to patient health.
Static cold storage has been the standard of care for liver preservation since the first liver transplant was performed in the U.S. in 1967. Mobile cold perfusion circulates a specially formulated, cold-temperature medical solution throughout a donor liver during its journey from the point of donation to surgical transplantation into a recipient.
The clinical trial used a proprietary system called the LifePort® Liver Transporter with Vasosol®, which is based upon technology that is already widely used in kidney transplant programs across the U.S. and worldwide.
UC Medical Center is among the busiest liver transplant centers in the U.S., with 120 liver transplants performed in 2019.
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