TRANSPLANT REVOLUTION

Pioneering technique raising success rates

- BY MARTIN BAGOT

HUNDREDS more transplants will be successful thanks to a revolutionary technique being rolled out on the NHS.

Surgeons will pump organs such as the liver, kidney and pancreas with oxygenated blood before removing them after a pilot showed it could boost the number of usable parts that are retrieved.

The technique was shown to double the number of usable livers and increase the average transplanted abdominal organs from each donor from 2.6 to 3.3.

Surgeons at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh pioneered the method, called abdominal normothermic regional perfusion.

Andrew Butler, consultant transplant surgeon at Addenbrooke's, said: "[It] has revolutionised the way that we are able to provide care for our patients. We can double the number of livers that are transplanted from donors who donate under specific circumstances.

"We are better able to honour the amazing gift that the donor and their family have so generously offered and this is a privilege for us as a transplant team."

HOW DOES ANRP WORK?