July 02, 2024, 10:21
2 min of reading
PALERMO – The heart arrives in Palermo in a box: pulsating and beatingThe first transplant was performed at ISMETT using “Heart in the box” technology.
This is the first intervention of this type carried out in Southern Italy. The technology developed in the United States has been used so far in the best transplant centers in Europe and North America.
‘Heart in the box’
“The heart – explains Sergio Sciacca, head of the Transplant Program of the Heart of ISMETT – arrived at our center transported in a sort of sterile box, a device inside which the organ is perfused with the donor’s blood and continues to pulsate. With this technology, the ischemic suffering times of the cardiac organ are reduced, because during transport the cardiac muscle continues to receive blood and oxygen for its metabolic functions. It is also possible to perform biochemical checks and acquire data that ensure the good functionality of the heart once transplanted”.
The intervention
The sampling was performed by a team from ISMETT composed of cardiac surgeons (Sergio Sciacca and Matteo Greco), perfusionists (Andrea Giunta and Rosi Longo) and an operating room nurse (Giancarlo Cappello).
The removed organ was connected to the device and irrigated during a long journey of about 6 hours, continuing to beat until arriving in the operating room at ISMETT. Here it was transplanted to a Sicilian patient on the waiting list for two years.
“I thank the institutions and their great support of the Regional Transplant Center that made all this possible,” says Michele Pilato, Director of the Department of Cardiac Surgery and Heart Transplant at ISMETT.
Record numbers
“Thanks to great teamwork, which also involves the resuscitation units of the territory coordinated by the CRT – he continues -, the number of heart transplants in 2024 has had an exceptional increase, which places our center and Sicily among the first in Italy for volumes of patients treated. Having this cutting-edge technology available will allow us to go further, to evaluate a greater number of organs and to extend the indications for their use, providing greater answers to our population of patients with terminal heart failure waiting for a life-saving heart transplant”.
“The recipient – explains Sergio Sciacca – he was a complex patient because he already had a Left Ventricular Support (the so-called artificial heart, ed.) and therefore had a particularly delicate and complex intraoperative preparation. The patient is well, he is still hospitalized at ISMETT, but the immediate feedback is of an excellent restart of cardiac function and a regular post-operative course”.
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Published on
July 02, 2024, 10:21
