Student gets artificial windpipe
Thursday November 24th, 2011
A geology student from Eritrea has become the latest beneficiary of dramatic advances in windpipe transplant techniques, it was revealed today.
Swedish
doctors have given the 36-year-old man the first artificial organ of its
kind.
The organ was seeded with stem cells, using a technique first perfected on donated organs by the Swedish team.
The operation was performed in June and today Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene says he is "so grateful" for the life-saving procedure, performed after a golf-ball sized tumour blocked his throat. Beyene is currently studying in Iceland.
Professor Paolo Macchiarini, of the Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, worked with University College, London, on the project, reported today in The Lancet.
The professor says the latest technique has advantages over other procedures as it uses the patient's own cells - and there are no concerns over rejection.
A second patient, a man of 30 from Maryland, USA, has just received an advanced version of the artificial trachea, made from nanofibres.
The professor said: "We will continue to improve the regenerative medicine approaches for transplanting the windpipe and extend it to the lungs, heart, and oesophagus. And investigate whether cell therapy could be applied to irreversible diseases of the major airways and lungs."
Tags: Africa | Europe | Respiratory | Transplant
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