An Aurora-based Children’s Hospital Colorado team has performed the hospital’s and region’s first heart and liver dual-organ transplant.
Only 38 pediatric heart and liver dual-organ transplants have been performed in the U.S., according to a Dec. 15 news release from the hospital.
The procedure was performed on an 11-year-old patient with hypoplastic left-heart syndrome. While most children with the condition live into adulthood, other conditions may result from hypoplastic left-heart syndrome such as liver dysfunction and failure. The patient received care through Children’s Colorado’s Fontan Multidisciplinary Clinic, part of the hospital’s Single Ventricle Program, until the care team determined a transplant was necessary.
Matthew Stone, MD, surgical director of the Pediatric Heart Transplant Program, and Emily Downs, MD, performed the heart transplant first. The donor liver was kept on a TransMedics Organ Care System during the nine-hour procedure. Then, Megan Adams, MD, surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant and Kidney Transplant Programs, and Kendra Conzen, MD, took over to perform the liver transplant, which took seven hours.
The patient was discharged from the cardiac progress care unit about one month after transplant, and has since returned home and is attending school, the release said.
