A machine that enables donated livers to be “kept alive” is being used by London transplant surgeons.
The device has been employed in six transplants at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and doctors believe it will allow more patients to undergo life-saving treatment.
The OrganOx metra enables the liver to be kept at body temperature rather than being put on ice, maintaining its condition for an extra 24 hours.
The device also pumps the organ with oxygenated blood, medications and nutrients, which better preserves the liver and enables surgeons to assess it prior to transplantation.
More than 500 donor livers a year cannot be transplanted in the UK, often because the organ ends up in a poor condition after being stored on ice.
Former NHS chef Trevor Williams, 69, from Waterlooville, Hampshire, was the first NHS patient to receive a liver transplant using the metra at the Royal Free. He was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in November last year and told the only treatment was a transplant.
He was about to undergo the transplant in March but it had to be cancelled at the last minute when the donated liver was deemed unsuitable.
A week later he was matched with a new donor liver, which was first assessed on the OrganOx device. This time the transplant went ahead and was a success. Satheesh Iype, the consultant surgeon who carried out the transplant, said: “It is appropriate to use in cases where donor liver quality might be difficult to assess because it simulates the conditions in the body, so you can assess functionality before making a decision to transplant.
“This means that we can potentially accept more donor livers that before might not have been judged to be suitable and that means we are likely to perform many more transplants.”
Mr Williams said: “I didn’t hesitate to say yes when I was told about the possibility of harnessing this new technology for my transplant and it is incredible to think about it.”
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Professor Joerg-Matthias Pollok, clinical lead for hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery and liver transplantation at the Royal Free, was instrumental in bringing the OrganOx machine to the trust.
He said: “When you get offered a donor liver we make decisions on the information provided and sometimes we have to decline an offer based on that information. This new technology has given us an objective way of assessing the liver because we can measure how it is performing.”
Doug Thorburn, clinical director for liver transplantation, HPB and hepatology, added: “This is an important improvement in liver transplantation and we hope it will lead to us being able to perform more transplants.”
