Mass General Brigham surgeons have removed a genetically edited pig kidney from a patient, Tim Andrews, after nearly nine months — making the 67-year-old the longest-living recipient of a pig kidney.
In January, Mr. Andrews, of Concord, N.H., was the fourth patient to receive a genetically edited pig kidney in the U.S., and the second person to receive one at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital.
The first two U.S. patients to receive pig kidneys died, and the third had hers removed after experiencing acute organ rejection. The third patient, an Alabama woman, lived with the gene-edited pig kidney for 130 days.
Mr. Andrews set the world record after living for 271 days with a pig kidney.
On Oct. 23, surgeons removed the organ “after a period of decreasing kidney function,” according to an Oct. 27 statement from Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham. Mr. Andrews will return to dialysis treatment and remain on the waitlist for a human donor kidney.
The system said its xenotransplantation research will continue with a third genetically edited pig kidney transplant in 2025.
