Here are recent medical advancements, as reported by Becker’s:
1. Clinicians at Northwestern Medicine have performed multiple first procedures. In May and July, the Chicago-based system logged its first two kidney transplants on awake patients. The procedure, which is possible with a different anesthetic, is intended for patients who face health risks from general anesthesia.
And at the start of the year, Northwestern announced the nation’s first successful double-lung and liver transplant. The surgery was for a stage 3 lung cancer patient — a pulmonologist based in California — who did not respond to conventional treatments. Six months after the procedure, he remained cancer free.
The system has also performed a double-lung and liver transplant on a patient with stage 4 colorectal cancer, and as of late September, she had no remaining signs of cancer.
2. A few months after Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine completed the first successful experiment of circulating a deceased donor’s blood through a pig liver, surgeons at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital transplanted the world’s first genetically edited pig kidney in March. The patient later died from an unexpected cardiac event.
NYU Langone Health, based in New York City, transplanted the first-ever combined heart pump and genetically engineered pig kidney. The patient was the second person to receive a gene-edited pig kidney and the first to receive a pig’s thymus gland to prevent rejection.
Both patients who received kidneys from genetically modified pigs died in following months; both health systems shared condolences and hope for future medical developments.
NYU Langone said the patient’s “contributions to medicine, surgery and xenotransplantation cannot be overstated,” adding that “her bravery gave hope to thousands of people living with end-stage kidney or heart failure who could soon benefit from an alternative supply of organs.”
The system is a leader in transplantation. In September, NYU Langone announced that a 46-year-old patient was recovering well after the world’s first whole-eye and partial face transplant. Clinicians at the system have also performed the nation’s first fully robotic lung transplant, the world’s first fully robotic double lung transplant and the transplant of one of the first gene-edited pig kidneys.
The recipient of the 10 gene-edited kidney was feeling well three weeks after the operation.
“I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it buzzing,” Towana Looney, 53, said at a Dec. 17 news conference. “It’s so strong.”
3. Cardiology has seen a significant level of success for inaugural procedures, including the world’s first partial heart transplant, which was performed at Durham, N.C.-based Duke Health, and the first “domino” heart transplant on babies at a New York City hospital.
More recently, surgeons at Boston Children’s Hospital might have been the first to complete a partial heart transplant as an elective procedure, according to an Aug. 1 news release. Houston-based Texas Heart Institute also performed the first in-human implantation of the BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart on July 9.
In mid-November, a team at Atlanta-based Emory University Hospital became the first in the U.S. to transplant a magnetically levitated ventricular assist device. The device offers mechanical circulatory support and pumps blood from the lower heart chambers.
4. In February, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic performed the third total larynx transplant in the U.S., and it marked the first such procedure for a patient with active cancer. Transplants of the larynx, commonly known as the voice box, are rare.
The patient, Marty Kedian, has a rare form of laryngeal cancer called chondrosarcoma. For 10 years, he underwent dozens of surgeries that diminished his voice and his ability to swallow and breathe normally. Four months after the surgery, Mr. Kedian has regained about 60% of his voice, and his ability to swallow and breathe has also improved.
5. Several health systems and hospitals have achieved institutional firsts this year. Mayo Clinic clinicians performed the organization’s first paired living-donor liver transplants; not many health systems perform the procedure because of its complexity. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, based in Columbus, also recently set an institutional record by transplanting 10 kidneys from living patients into 10 recipients.
