A DOUBLE transplant of a heart and liver in the same operation has been carried out successfully in Spain, saving the life of a woman who was terminally ill, according to the team at Madrid's Gregorio Marañón Hospital.
The 12-hour procedure, involving 30 professionals, was conducted after the patient had undergone surgery known as 'Fontan', which involves separating the blood circulation in the body from that of the lungs.
It is typically performed on people who, like the woman in question, are born with just one ventricle, or 'heart chamber', instead of two.
Healthy humans and animals have two ventricles – one to pump 'new' blood around the system, and the other to collect up 'old' blood once it has finished pumping.
'Fontan' surgery is life-saving where it works, but can cause liver damage over time – and, if it does not work, both organs will fail.
The woman operated on was in this situation, and her only hope of even short-term survival was a liver and heart transplant.
Both needed to be performed at once, as one transplant followed by another would result in certain death – but only a small handful of hospitals in the world have the experience required to carry out such a delicate and complex procedure.
Water-tight and streamlined teamwork is absolutely essential, since a surgical team running into literally dozens of people specialising in totally different fields, from nursing to logistics to anaesthetics, have to make lightning-quick decisions and everyone else in the 'chain' has to be able to pick them up and follow them through seamlessly.
Liver transplant unit specialists, general surgery professionals, the national blood bank, and experts in congenital heart conditions in adults all worked together on the woman's operation, having to be completely focused on the finest of details for a full 12-hour stretch without a break.
This enormous task was carried out at the Gregorio Marañón (pictured above), since it is the national referral centre for congenital heart conditions – as well as being a pioneer in the field and staffed by experts in this area, it has been the one hospital in Spain that patients with complicated or serious cardiology problems suffered from birth rather than acquired have been sent to automatically since 2010.
To this end, the woman who went through the double transplant was not local, and had to travel quite some distance from another part of the country.
Happily, her own efforts and the surgical team's marathon working day paid off: The patient was transferred straight to intensive care after she left theatre, but then moved onto a mainstream ward within a matter of days – and has since been discharged.
She will need regular check-ups and follow-up treatment, as well as the immune-suppressing drugs transplant patients are given for life to stop their bodies rejecting the new organs.
Otherwise, she is expected to live a normal life, with a normal life expectancy, and carry out all normal-life activities.
The National Transplants Organisation (ONT) does not report on ground-breaking surgery until all sources have confirmed that the procedure is fully successful and the patient will survive, which means the woman involved should now be out of the woods.
Without the procedure, she was looking at only having weeks left to live at best.
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