The transplant lasted 271 days, the longest dialysis-free survival after a pig kidney transplant in a living human, as well as the first transition from pig-to-human kidney transplantation.
A man with end-stage kidney failure was kept off dialysis for nine months after being given a genetically modified organ from a pig.
The world-first procedure was carried out by the US-based Mass General Brigham academic centres and hospitals, which said the transplant was intended to be temporary before a permanent human donor could be found.
It marks the longest dialysis-free survival after a pig kidney transplant in a living human, as well as the first transition from pig-to-human kidney transplantation.
This is great news but if he was the first to get a pig kid transplant wouldn’t he by definition also have the longest survival after a pig kidney transplant?
Like if I invent a new thing, by definition I made the best one at that time.
It’s not that it’s the first pig kidney transplant, it’s that it’s the first pig-to-human transplant as well. So they swapped his kidney, he lived for 9 months (record) then got swapped back to a human kidney.
… but that’s where my understanding ends. I’m surprised this is the first pig-to-human kidney transplant; curious to know what happens to other transplant recipients.
Oh, so this is the first time they were basically able to reverse the surgery… That makes more sense.
This could be a game changer “well you have 2 months to live but we expect to not have a compatible human kidney for 7 months but we can extend your life till we get a human kidney with this pig one”
Dialysis extends human life relatively indefinitely. Source: On dialysis.
But it does take up a lot of my time, for one. I’m on dialysis for 4h15m three days per week. And there is a small risk every time I ahve dialysis, because it involves sticking me for two lines (output and input) and the small chance of some sort of problem with the machine (they clean them every time, but reality doesn’t care if something goes wrong - it’s pretty darn rare, but rare things happen).
Transplants aren’t a perfect solution. You must take a bunch of pills and if you miss a single does, the body starts rejecting the kidney, and the whole process lowers your immune system becasue that’s what the drugs are having to do in the first place to not reject the kidney.
So this is all good news (article), but it still ain’t great.
I understand that. Still good news though. Out of curiosity, say your doctor comes to you tomorrow to do something like what’s in the article, would you?
Yes good news per my last para, just mean even with that it’s not great. Heh.
Well right now I don’t qualify for transplant. I have hopes maybe a few more months.
I’m not sure if I’d take this even if I could get a transplant yet because it’s a risky surgery for a few months of maybe skipping dialysis - and Spanish sucks. But surgery isn’t trivial.
So probably I would skip it but maybe not. Hard to say.
That all makes sense except the Spanish sucks comment but I’m assuming that’s a typo.
Currently my kids doctor is asking if we want to get a vegistal nerve stimulator to control seizures. It’s a lot less invasive then a kidney transplant but I still don’t know, and I used to make medical implant stimulators. Granted it’s a little different as they are only labeled for single focal seizures and he has multi focal but even without that it’s still major surgery.
Fuck the Spanish!
Going too quickly on the phone, “dialysis sucks”. lol
Yeah, I can understand the hesitation. I’ve had seven heart attacks and they were thinking about an implant but ultimately decided against, but I was… uncertain. But especially because I had heart attacks, not cardiac arrest.
Everything is a damn risk. :(
Does this mean pigs have been getting kidney transplants amongst one another for a while then?
I’m on dialysis. It sucks. It’s better than dying, mind.
Transplants aren’t perfect, but they are better. But everything has risks, of course.
Article is good news, though. If they can make them work better, that might be a better solution. Kidneys from healthy (human) donors last longer than kidneys from less healthy donors. So if they can make pig kidneys last as long as human kidneys, that could be really great news.
