Intestinal transplantation

History

2022: First bowel transplant from deceased person performed

On October 11, 2022, a Spanish child became the world's first patient to successfully transplant an intestine from a donor who died of heart failure, a Madrid hospital said.

The recipient of the organ was a child - a 13-month-old girl who was diagnosed with intestinal insufficiency from birth. The child, after an operation carried out in the hospital, has already been discharged from the hospital and is at home, local media reports.

Successful bowel transplant from deceased person performed for the first time

The girl, Emma, 1, was diagnosed with intestinal failure when she was just one month old as her bowel was too short and her health rapidly deteriorated until she underwent a multivisceral transplant. In addition to her intestines, Emma also had her liver, stomach, spleen and pancreas transplanted.

Asystole is a complete lack of electrical activity in the heart muscles. Asystole transplants are performed after doctors confirm a lack of heartbeat and respiratory function. The deceased donor's organs are then artificially preserved - despite the lack of oxygenated blood - by a system known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

A feature of Emma's case is the difficulty of preserving the intestines in donor asystole due to the peculiarities of the digestive organ. Most transplanted organs are obtained from donors who have suffered brain death but have retained a heartbeat, as this allows the organs to be preserved intact. However, after the development of modern asystolic donation methods, the popularity of this method has increased and accounts for about a third of all donations in Spain.

In 2021, Spain shared with the United States the world leadership in organ transplantation. 102.4 and 126.8 transplants were performed per 1 million inhabitants, respectively. Spain has also been leading the field of donations in this area for 30 years.^[1]

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