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Spain performs first ever intestine transplant in the world on 13-month-old baby
The 13-month-old patient received the organ from a deceased person, a technique that had never been used before
La Paz University Hospital in Madrid has performed the world’s first ever multivisceral intestinal transplant from a controlled pediatric donation in asystole to a 13-month-old girl with intestinal failure.
The recipient had been diagnosed with the intestine problem since her first month of life, 12 months ago, and has already been discharged and is said to be in “perfect health”.
In recent years, the number of patients requiring a solid organ transplant to survive has actually increased, and asystolic donation now accounts for a third of all donations in Spain.
This technique, as reported by the director general of the National Transplant Organisation (ONT), Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, consists of taking the organs from patients whose heart has stopped beating and allows the possibility of donation to be considered as part of end-of-life care for those patients for whom it has been decided that life-support measures are appropriate.
This type of brain-death donation has never used for an intestine transplant before because it was considered that it would not be valid due to the special characteristics of this organ.
Since the scientific evidence was inconclusive about whether it could be done, the doctors at the Madrid hospital launched a three-year research project with institutional support and funding from the Mutua Madrileña Foundation.
Once the team was able to demonstrate, in several experimental models, that the intestine was valid, it was transferred to the clinic by a multidisciplinary team made up of professionals from Paediatric Gastroenterology, Paediatric Surgery, Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, Paediatric Intensive Care, Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation and the Coordination of Transplants, Experimental Surgery and IdiPAZ.
The patient, as explained by the head of the Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplant Unit, Esther Ramos, suffered from short bowel syndrome which caused intestinal failure and, after several operations, she had to undergo the transplant.
The aim now in the medium to short term is to wean the child off the drip that is feeding her and onto normal food. Daniel, the girl’s father, thanked the professional and “human” work of the team because it has “given life” not only to her, but also her parents.
“Today Madrid’s healthcare system has reached a new milestone in its history of achievements and successes as a result of the enormous work carried out by its healthcare professionals,” concluded the Regional Minister of Health of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero.
Image: Wikimedia commons
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