Though organ transplants are becoming more common in modern medicine, it was not that long ago that transplanting certain organs seemed like science fiction. The idea of transferring an organ from one body to another has been around for a long time, but today we can transplant several organs, including the heart, lungs and liver.
Ancient Transplants and Myths
Many Roman and Chinese myths cite transplants of legs and hearts by saints and medicine men, but the first account of an actual transplant took place in the second century B.C. The Indian surgeon Sushruta transplanted skin from one man to help rebuild the nose of another man. Another of transplantation took place in the late 16th century, again with skin. Italian surgeon Gasparo Tagliacozzi also did a skin graft, but his is also the first recorded account of rejection of the transplant by the patient.
Early 1900s
The most important experimenter of transplantation in the early 20th century was the French surgeon Alexis Carrel. He began to experiment with the transplantation of arteries and veins, one of his few successful human procedures. This work would earn him the Nobel Prize in 1912. Carrel also was the first to identify the problem of rejection, a dilemma that would stymie many scientists and doctors. Experimenting on dogs, Carrel learned the recipient body most often rejects donor organ material.
Joseph Murray
In 1954, Dr. Joseph Murray performed the first successful transplant of a kidney. The procedure, which transferred a kidney from one identical twin to another, was successful because the twins shared the same genes and the new body did not reject the kidney. He followed this procedure in 1962 with the first successful transplantation of a kidney from a dead body to a living one. Using immunosuppressive drugs during surgery, Murray stopped the recipient from rejecting the new kidney.
Other Organs
The next major organs to be transplanted were the lungs in 1963 by James Hardy of Mississippi. The lungs were taken from a deceased donor and put into a patient with lung cancer. The recipient lived for 18 days before his kidneys failed. A Colorado doctor attempted a liver transplant also that year, but would have to wait until 1967 to achieve success. The first heart transplant came in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard in South Africa, but the recipient also died 18 days later.
Advances
The success ratio of modern transplant can be attributed to cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant. Designed to reduce the immune system, cyclosporine helped the body adapt to the newly transplanted tissue. In 1980s, the FDA also approved a drug called Viaspan that helped people with new livers live longer. In 1992, the first baboon- to-man transplant successfully occurred. The FDA is testing a drug called Cylex, which could reduce infections in postoperative patients.
Tags: also first, , first successful, Joseph Murray, kidney from, recorded account