MACHINE CAN
plants we carry out at present that will be an important advance. It’s an exciting technology that has already enabled us to transplant many livers that would not have been used.”
OrganOx was officially approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for NHS use in January.
And it is now in use at six transplant centres – two in London and in Cambridge, Birmingham, Newcastle and Edinburgh.
Prof Friend, a transplant surgeon and director of the Oxford Transplant Centre, said: “It’s taken a decade since the very beginning for the box to become official on the NHS.
“In addition to 250 transplants using it in the UK, we have saved another 250 lives abroad. Our technology is slowly gaining acceptance across the world.”
Surgeons at the Royal Free have already achieved a first with the machine just j months after beginning to use it. They transplanted the smallest liver ever, weighing just 750g, into an adult using the box. It had been rejected by other centres without the OrganOx.
The hospital’s head transplant surgeon Prof J Joerg- Matthias Pollok said: “Having the machine buys us time to test the liver and make sure it is functioning well, which means there isn’t the rush to transplant often late at night or in the early hours. It takes the pressure off.”
We can transplant livers that would not have been used before SURGEON NASRALLA ON ORGANOX BREAKTHROUGH
STORAGE
Birmingham’s University Hospital transplant surgeon Prof Darius Mirza said: “I’m certain it will change the way we practise organ storage and transplantation. It is already changing practice at centres that have been able to use it.” End- stage liver disease kills 11,000 people a year in England – with deaths up 25 per cent in a decade.
Prof Kevin Harris of NICE said: “By using this procedure, more patients on the waiting list could be offered a chance of a transplant.
“It offers another way of preserving and assessing the liver, so those who might have previously been considered unsuitable can be used safely.”
And people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant could be next to benefit, with the team behind OrganOx now looking at developing a similar machine for them.