Pig kidney used in humans for the first time

Dusseldorf In the United States, kidneys from a pig have been successfully inserted into a human body for the first time. The intervention took place in September last year on a brain-dead man and has now been published in an American study publication.

The doctors had removed both of the kidneys from the 57-year-old, whose body could only be kept alive by machines after a motorcycle accident. Two genetically modified pig kidneys were then transplanted.

The organs in the brain-dead man’s body worked for 77 hours to the satisfaction of the doctors. Then the life support machines had to be turned off due to other serious consequences of the motorcycle accident. The family consented to the surgery.

For the surgeons at the University of Alabama Clinic at Birmingham, the operation is an important signal to all kidney patients who have so far been waiting for a human organ donation without any result. They could possibly be supplied with organs from pigs in the future.