A medical team at Azienda Ospedaliera di Padova led by world-renowned Italian heart surgeon Gino Gerosa, has successfully performed the world’s first transplant of a totally beating heart, from harvesting to implantation.
“This is the world’s first totally beating heart transplant,” Gerosa said. And he explained, “Whereas in a usual heart transplant, the organ is harvested and implanted from a stationary position, in this case it has always beaten and therefore the whole transplant was performed with a beating heart from the moment of harvest to the moment of implantation.”
The surgery was performed two weeks ago on a 65-year-old man suffering from post-ischemic heart disease. According to the medical team, the patient “is doing well and will return home before Christmas.” As Gerosa explains, this is an innovative surgery that builds on a number of important previous research and studies in the field of cardiac surgery.
“It is a team effort that brings us to mark a milestone that takes us back to Padua on November 14, 1985 when Professor Gallucci did the first transplant in Italy. In May last year we performed the first transplant in Italy from a still-heart donor,” notes the cardiac surgeon. “In the wake of Professor Joseph Woo’s experiences, we then chose to keep the heart we had harvested beating, making it continue to beat without damage from perfusion ischemia.”
Woo is chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University with an appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. The expert works in the field of cardiopulmonary transplantation and on minimally invasive surgery by developing several innovative methodologies.
“We are very happy first of all for the patient and especially because this result paves the way for many other patients. It is a real revolution because we better protect the heart and the life expectancy of the patient who receives it.” Gerosa adds, “The first thanks go to the donor’s family members, as without donation all this would not have been possible.”
