Hundreds of thousands of lives are leaning on the edge waiting for the right organ and a new life. However, donated liver still remains a scarce resource these days and many lives are lost while waiting for the right liver. What makes the situation worse, is that over 2000 livers were wasted every year in the US and Europe because they were damaged during transport by the ice pack and solution used as the only method of preservation. However, a new device has recently been unveiled in London, England by the University of Oxford that keeps a donated liver at body temperature before they reached the patient waiting for transplant.
Because of the fact that an available liver must be matched with an appropriate receiver, it’s rare that an available liver is in close proximity to the receiver’s hospital. Therefore a long transportation time is sometimes incurred during which the liver is easily damaged because it is kept out of it optimal living conditions. The new device, however, allows the donated liver to be kept for at least 24 hours, what’s even more amazing, is that the liver keeps on functioning while in the device.
A donor liver connected with the device
The device simply acts as a body and supply the liver with oxygenated blood and nutrients, but the trick is, how much and at what pressure. “The key is that the system ‘listens’ to the organ to find out how much blood to supply, and at what pressure,” says Stuart Kay, of Team Consulting in Cambridge, UK. There are multiple sensor for the flow of fluid, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and sugar concentration in blood to create the optimum environment for the liver. Currently this device only works for donated livers, but the researchers at Cambridge are certain that it can be modified to fit other organs as well.
Check out this video on the actually hooking up of the liver and the device!
http://www.newscientist.com/video/2228569979001-device-keeps-liver-alive-outside-the-body.html
by Jonathan Lui
