First Ever Non-Beating Heart Transplant A Success

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Non-beating heart transplant was carried out by doctors in Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom, marking the first ever successful surgery of its kind in Europe.

The surgery is a breakthrough involving new techniques to reactivate the heart that stopped beating inside the donor's body, which is called circulatory death. Heart transplantation by far has been performed with heart from donors that pump blood in spite of brain-stem death. Doctor's from Papworth Hospital performed this remarkable surgery on Huseyin Ulucan, 60, from London earlier this month who has been suffering from heart problems after a massive heart attack in 2008, reported The Guardian.

Simon Messer, cardiothoracic transplant registrar at the hospital, told the Guardian that "This is a phenomenal achievement." He also added that "People who previously would not get a heart transplant will now be able to have them."

Heart from the donor is removed minutes after it stopped beating and is reactivated and monitored using ultrasound for about 50 minutes before it is approved for transplantation. The restarted heart is then supplied with blood and nutrition in an "organ care system" or placed in a machine box for three hours until it gets transplanted.

According to BBC, "We had the heart beating for about 50 minutes, and by monitoring its function were able to tell that it was in very good condition," said Dr. Stephen Large, the lead transplant surgeon.

The Papworth team also noted that supplying blood and nutrients inside the heart in a machine box helped reduce the damage caused to the heart muscle compared with the traditional way of storing it in an ice box. The organ care machine is manufactured by TransMedic in the United States. Each unit reportedly costs £150,000 plus £25,000 per patient transplanted. The number of available hearts for transplantation could be increased by 25 percent using non-beating heart transplantation technique, noted the Papworth Hospital.

"Sadly, there is a shortage of organs for transplant across the UK and patients die in need of an organ. We hope Papworth's work and similar work being developed elsewhere will result in more hearts being donated and more patients benefitting from a transplant in the future," said James Neuberger, associate medical director for organ donation and transplantation at NHS Blood and Transplant.

Ulucan, shifted from the hospital's critical care unit in just four days, is now reportedly recovering well at home. He told BBC that, "Before the surgery, I could barely walk and I got out of breath very easily, I really had no quality of life."