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Spanish Surgeon Performs First Synthetic Organ Transplant

Posted by timothy on from the bet-they're-delicious dept.

Bob the Super Hamste writes "The BBC is reporting that surgeons in Sweden have transplanted a synthetic windpipe into a patient. The synthetic windpipe was grown from a scaffolding and coated with the patients own stem cells. The scaffolding was made using 3D images of the patient's own windpipe. The new windpipe was made by scientists in London."

10 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Not the first by 5 years by toppavak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anthony Atala's group, now at Wake Forest University, have grown implanted bladders grown in the same fashion. In fact, it was Atala's group that was one of the leading pioneers of the technique (I believe Robert Langer's group at MIT also had done some seminal work in this area). http://articles.cnn.com/2006-04-03/health/engineered.organs_1_bladder-cells-spina-bifida?_s=PM:HEALTH

  2. Huge by Telvin_3d · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As I write this, the only comments posted so far are the usual sarcastic quips. But this is huge. Beyond huge.

    For the first time, an artificially produced cloned organ has been created and transplanted. Someone has received an organ that has zero chance of rejection and will heal to a completely natural state.

    I give it less than a decade before more complex organs like hearts or kidneys are transplanted for the first time.

    1. Re:Huge by geekoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually it might.
      They can build the structure ahead of time, and then when needed put your cells onto the stricture.

      I suspect there will be a time when you can have your critical organ on 'standby'. At my age, I would love to hae a second heart ready to replace my older one. I read a paper where they where discussing the possible of creating a heart this way, and then having it put inside you along with your other heart to take over.

      It was high level musing..but high level musing by people that know all the details.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:Huge by Telvin_3d · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah, but it's a much smaller bill. Turns out that any level of 'government inefficiency' is a drop in the bucket beside the waste of having every company involved take its 50% off the top, plus executive salaries, plus lack of preventative medicine because that is an 'expense'.

      Here is an excellent graphic from National Geographic comparing spending to life expectancy. Despite having worse outcomes than almost every nation on the chart, the US is spending so much more that they had to be placed outside the graph. In fact, most industrialized nations are spending less than half as much as the US for better outcomes. The only countries with worse outcomes are spending less than a quarter as much per person as the US does.

      So while the citizens as the United States of America may not be able to afford it, I suspect the rest of the world will do just fine.

      And that assumes that this causes a net rise in health costs. My guess is that, when all is said and done, replacing damaged organs will prove much cheaper than long term treatment and complications do now.

    3. Re:Huge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I suspect there will be a time when you can have your critical organ on 'standby'.

      Well, I realize you're a bit older, but I, for one, always have my critical organ on standby.

    4. Re:Huge by camperdave · · Score: 2

      For the first time, an artificially produced cloned organ has been created and transplanted.

      No. They've been doing this with cloned bladders for close to a decade. The only new aspect to this is that they created the scaffold from 3D scans of the patient's own organ.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wouldn't that be an "implant"? I mean, they're not taking it from someone else, are they..?

  4. Re:Spanish surgeon? by demonlapin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Professor Paolo Macchiarini from Spain led the pioneering surgery

    the 36-year-old African patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene

    Did you?

  5. Re:Spanish surgeon? by jittles · · Score: 3, Informative

    A Spanish surgeon in a Swedish facility with a British organ for an African patient. Now that is Globalization!

  6. Re:Maybe. by sjames · · Score: 2

    There are plenty of concerns, but given the alternative was death, it's not at all a bad risk. Even if the organs did turn out not to last long, they would at least be a good bridge to transplant.