Collected in the West Indies, transplanted in Paris: a heart transplanted after 12 hours of storage on board a plane


Laura Laplaud

After traveling across the Atlantic Ocean by plane, a heart taken in the West Indies was able to be transplanted into a patient at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris. A great first which marks a major advance in the field of organ transplantation.

For the first time, a heart was successfully transplanted into a patient in Paris after traveling by plane the 6,750 kilometers that separate the Antilles from France. A true medical feat since the organ was preserved for 12 hours, while current techniques do not allow a graft to be preserved for more than four hours.

An ex-vivo perfusion machine

To achieve this feat, the heart was placed in an ex-vivo perfusion machine, developed in Sweden, during a commercial flight between the Antilles and Paris, we learn in an article published by The Lancet. Shaped like a cooler, this machine made it possible to maintain the organ at 8 degrees and to perfuse it continuously with oxygen and blood. In recent years, this machine had undergone clinical trials but had never been used for long distances.

More than 21,866 patients remain waiting for a transplant

The donor was a 48-year-old man who was declared brain dead. There Heart transplant took place at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital last January on a 70-year-old man. The success of this operation, where distance and transport time are no longer limiting factors, could redefine the landscape of transplantation. In 2023, in France, there were 5,634 transplants, most often kidneys. Today, more than 21,866 patients remain waiting for a transplant, including 11,422 immediately eligible, according to the Biomedicine Agency.





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