First successful Xenotransplant: porcine heart transplant in human

Lack of organs is a greater burden to medical community, whose main moto is to save lives. The lack of availability of exact donor organs has been an increasing cause of mortality rate all over the world. Cardiac transplants occur every year but is restricted due to limited availability of hearts.

Xenotransplantation was first attempted in the 1980s but was largely abandoned after the renowned case of Stephanie Fae Beauclair (known as Baby Fae) at the University of Loma Linda, California. An infant born with a fatal heart disease underwent a baboon heart transplant and died within a month of surgery due to immune system rejection of the foreign heart. However, pig heart valves have been successfully used to replace human valves for many years.

Recently, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medicine, performed the first-ever xenotransplantation using a genetically engineered porcine heart into a man with end-stage heart disease. "This was a breakthrough surgery and brings us one step closer to solving the organ shortage crisis. There are simply not enough donor human hearts available to meet the long list of potential recipients," said Dr Bartley P. Griffith, MD who surgically transplanted the pig heart into the patient.

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First Successful Porcine Heart Transplant in Human - A monumental Milestone in Transplant History