New organ perfusion device at the University Hospital Leipzig gives new hope - city of Leipzig

The new device enables the mechanical perfusion (rinsing) of a donor liver. With this device, the experts in the transplant center of the university clinic can assess organ function before transplantation and therefore have to sell fewer organs.

liver transplantation in the university clinic

For over 25 years, liver at the Leipzig University Hospital have been successfully transplanted. Doctors are increasingly confronted with a decreasing quality of the donor organs. "The donors become older and sick, as well as their liver," explains Dr. Sebastian Rademacher, senior physician in the field of hepatobile surgery and visceral transplantation. In addition, Germany is ahead of the Geberven volume in Europe. 15 to 30 percent of all donated organs in western industrialized countries cannot currently be transplanted due to relevant earlier damage to the donor liver, such as larger adipose tissue. Research on organ perfusion has been operated for many years, and technology has now been very advanced. "It is still a new, but approved and safe procedure," emphasizes Dr. Rademacher therefore. So far, transplant surgeons have had about 12 to 14 hours to transplant a distant organ.

What happens in the organ perfusion machine?

The interior of the human body can be reproduced almost perfectly in an organ perfusion device. The liver, which was previously stored at 4 degrees Celsius, is first added to the modern machine. Blood and nutrients are given beforehand. The organ is then connected to the device via cannulas and tubes and flushed with the blood ("perfected"). A built -in "artificial lungs" supplies this blood with oxygen. In this way, an almost complete organism is simulated. "With this device we also check organs that we would not have taken beforehand, which creates a lot of security for the patient," explains senior physician Rademacher. "After four hours we can see whether the organ works or not. If it works, we have a well -prepared liver after four hours."

previous knowledge

The procedure is not cheap, the health insurance companies have not yet paid for the costs, but the UKL itself. "But because of the great advantages for those affected, we would like to offer it," says Dr. Rademacher. The new UKL device has already completed two runs. Both were successful, albeit in different directions: "The first case was successful for the patient who had received a new liver transplant. The second case can also be classified as successful. Here the machine showed that the organ was not transplantable. For example, the experience in Münster was, for example, alongside Frankfurt and now Leipzig, one of the three centers in Germany, in which this special device was used, very positive:" Koronavirus brought us everything here too, ”says Rademacher.

additional information

www.uniklinikum-leipzig.de