Big step forward for the Asufc Liver Transplant Center. For the first time in Friuli Venezia Giulia the artificial preservation machine of liver. A system that guarantees optimal organ conservation while waiting for its implantation on the recipient. A great result especially for a region like ours which, geographically, is located in a peripheral area of the Peninsula. Doctor Umberto Baccarani of the Liver Transplant Center said: “It is a tool that allows for an improvement in transplantation activity throughout our region, guaranteeing an extension of the status of storage of the organ and consequently an even more efficient planning for the interventions: for the specialists and for the patients themselves an extremely important step “.
The case
In this specific case the liver was transplanted to a patient suffering from severe acute liver failure which required a national emergency transplant and therefore the use of the first compatible organ on the Italian territory in a location particularly distant from Udine. The machine was used by the team headed by Professor Andrea Risaliti, just returned from his experience at the Dubai Transplant Center. The ischemic times of the organs to be transplanted are critical for the success of the transplant and must be kept as short as possible: the availability of the artificial liver preservation machine has made it possible, for the first time, to successfully use the liver up to execution of the transplant occurred more than twelve hours after organ removal.
The future
Liver preservation machine technology, which has developed in recent years, has the potential to increase the availability of in the future organi to be transplanted, essential to meet the increasing demand for patients on the waiting list, guaranteeing not only a greater number of transplants, but also a potential improvement in the results of the transplant itself.