Transplant medicine is on the verge of a great leap forward. At least that’s how the researchers describe it. A new process would allow organs to be preserved for months in the future. Research into this is also being conducted at the Medical University of Innsbruck. The vision of an organ bank could thus become reality.
The process is called supercooling. It is still in the experimental phase of clinical trials. But transplant surgeon Gerald Brandacher is confident the technology will revolutionize his field.
After years working at one of the most important universities in the US, the Watten Brandacher resident returned to his home university to further develop the procedure in Innsbruck, together with clinic director Stefan Schneeberger – also a transplant specialist.
Doctors learn from fish and frogs
Nature is the role model for doctors. “Fish and frogs in Arctic waters can survive virtually frozen for a while. They have natural frost protection that we have imitated,” Brandacher explains. What does that achieve? “The new cooling technology makes it possible to store organs for weeks or even months at temperatures below zero degrees,” the doctor explains. This is not yet possible because organs become unusable due to ice formation when they freeze.
Organ banks are no longer a utopia
Clinic director Schneeberger describes what hypothermia means for medicine: “We can then actually build up an organ bank and help significantly more patients.” Currently, doctors often run out of time. Once an organ is removed, it can only be transferred within a small window of a few hours.
This time window has already been expanded at the Innsbruck Clinic in recent years with a new method. This refers to machine perfusion, which makes organs last longer. Schneeberger speaks of 55 liver transplants since the introduction of the method in which perfusion was successfully applied. In combination with hypothermia, completely different possibilities probably arise.
Source: Krone
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