September 3, 2024
(NBC News) – Four people have received hearts or kidneys from pigs. Some of their relatives recount a roller coaster of hope and uncertainty. Three other patients have followed in Bennett Sr.’s footsteps and received pig organs, most recently a … Read More
August 30, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Venture capitalist Tristan Mace wants to improve the way organs are donated and how recipients fare Mace needed a heart transplant. His desperate condition catapulted him to the top of the transplant list, and he got a … Read More
August 28, 2024
(ABC News) – People who volunteer to donate a kidney face an even lower risk of death from the operation than doctors have long thought, researchers reported Wednesday. The study tracked 30 years of living kidney donation and found that … Read More
August 26, 2024
(NPR) – More than 90,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a kidney transplant. But an ongoing kidney shortage means a thousand people a month are removed from the waitlist, either because they die while waiting for a kidney … Read More
August 22, 2024
(Vox) – For some time now, independent analysts and investigative reporters have argued that OPOs [Organ Procurement Organizations] are underusing deceased donor organs by the tens of thousands. One report from 2019 estimated that every year 28,000 usable organs (mostly … Read More
August 19, 2024
(Axios) – Women who received uterus transplants have delivered more than 70 infants worldwide since the first successful transplant in 2011, with 20 cases at a Texas medical center showing about the same success rate as with natural wombs, per … Read More
August 15, 2024
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 390, no. 24, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 22, 2024
(Associated Press) – Wide-eyed piglets rushing to check out the visitors to their unusual barn just might represent the future of organ transplantation – and there’s no rolling around in the mud here. The first gene-edited pig organs ever transplanted … Read More
July 10, 2024
(ABC News) – A Massachusetts man can speak again after surgeons removed his cancerous voice box and replaced it with a donated one, a pioneering move Transplants of the so-called voice box are extremely rare, and normally aren’t an option … Read More
July 10, 2024
(New York Times) – Lisa Pisano, 54, lived with the organ for 47 days. She was the first patient to receive both a heart pump and an organ transplant, doctors said. The patient, Lisa Pisano, was critically ill, suffering from … Read More
July 8, 2024
(NPR) – About half of the nation’s 56 organ procurement organizations have already started using NRP and more are planning to start soon, according to the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. But NRP has sparked an intense ethical debate. The … Read More
June 25, 2024
(CBS News) – Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine performed a kidney transplant on an awake patient, marking a first for the Chicago-based healthcare system. The patient, 28-year-old John Nicholas of Chicago, felt no pain during the May 24 procedure and was discharged the … Read More
June 20, 2024
(Psychology Today) – Every year in the United States more than 11,000 people die while waiting for transplantable organs. Although efforts have been made to transplant genetically modified pig organs into humans, the practice is not yet widespread nor are outcomes magnificent. To save … Read More
May 29, 2024
(Aeon) – Six hours she had been officially dead. Six times had the hour hand on the clock moved – and she had lain dead. Now she had re-entered the world of the living. I would support her blood pressure … Read More
May 24, 2024
(NPR) – Until 2015, men who have had sex with another man weren’t allowed to donate blood – and there were still limits on their donations until last year, when the federal government lifted those. Restrictions on organ donations were … Read More
May 22, 2024
May 13, 2024
(Associated Press) – The first recipient of a genetically modified pig kidney transplant has died nearly two months after he underwent the procedure, his family and the hospital that performed the surgery said Saturday. Richard “Rick” Slayman had the transplant … Read More
April 25, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – A month ago, Richard Slayman became the first living person to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig. Now, a team of researchers from NYU Langone Health reports that Lisa Pisano, a 54-year-old woman from … Read More
April 24, 2024
(Associated Press) – Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart. Lisa Pisano’s combination of heart and kidney failure left … Read More
April 23, 2024
(ABC News) – The U.S. faces a dire kidney organ shortage, meaning patients with kidney failure must meet certain criteria to be considered good candidates for a transplant. One of those considerations is a test called the “eGFR” calculation, which … Read More
April 22, 2024
(The Hill) – Contractors for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) cut access to tests for transplant patients that could show early signs of organ rejection despite expert physicians advising the opposite, a new report has found. (Read … Read More
April 16, 2024
(NPR) – NPR’s Scott Simon speaks with Jennifer Erickson, senior fellow with the Federation of American Scientists, about the organ transplant system and how eligible donated organs wind up in the trash. (Listen Here)
April 12, 2024
(New York Times) – For decades, Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., a transplant surgeon in Texas, gained accolades and national prominence for his work, including by helping to enforce professional standards in the country’s sprawling organ transplant system. But officials … Read More
April 8, 2024
(STAT News) – The world’s first recipient of a kidney transplant from a genetically modified pig experienced a rejection episode before recovering and leaving the hospital last week, a Massachusetts General Hospital doctor told STAT. But in his first few … Read More
April 5, 2024
(Axios) – The success of the world’s first pig kidney transplant could stoke large-scale clinical trials on implanting animal tissues in humans to help ease the organ shortage crisis. Why it matters: Demand for donated organs is vast as transplants … Read More
