Woman given womb from dead donor has baby girl
A MOTHER has given birth to a healthy baby girl after surgeons implanted a womb in her body taken from a dead person.
The birth, in Brazil, is the first reported involving a deceased donor womb transplant.
Ten previous attempts, in the US, Czech Republic and Turkey, to achieve a live birth using a womb taken from a dead individual, had all ended in failure.
The first birth after a womb transplant from a living donor took place in Sweden in September 2013.
Since then there have been 39 such procedures resulting in 11 live births.
The recipient in the ground-breaking latest case involving a dead donor was a 32-year-old woman born without a womb due to a rare genetic disorder.
In September 2016 she was given an unexpected chance of motherhood after undergoing the womb transplant at the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo.
The uterus was taken from a 45-year-old donor who had died from a brain haemorrhage.
Surgeons spent 10.5 hours plumbing in the organ by connecting veins, arteries, ligaments and vaginal canals.
News of the procedure was disclosed in The Lancet medical journal.
Dr Dani Ejzenberg, from the Faculty of Medicine at Sao Paulo University, who led the team, said: “The use of deceased donors could greatly broaden access to this treatment, and our results provide proof-of-concept for a new option for women with uterine infertility.
“The first uterus transplants from live donors were a medical milestone, creating the possibility of childbirth for many infertile women with access to suitable donors and the needed medical facilities.
“However, the need for a live donor is a major limitation as donors are rare, typically being willing and eligible family members or close friends.
“The numbers of people willing and committed to donate organs upon their own deaths are far larger than those of live donors, offering a much wider potential donor population.”
After surgery, the anonymous recipient remained in intensive care for two days before spending another six days on a specialised transplant ward.
She received five immunosuppression drugs to prevent her body rejecting the new organ.
Five months after the transplant, the implanted womb appeared to have been successfully incorporated.