A 13-month-old baby, the first case in the world of an intestinal transplant from a deceased

A 13-month-old baby’s life has been saved with a pioneering operation. The La Paz Hospital in Madrid has carried out the first intestine transplant of the world of a deceased person. The recipient girl suffered from intestinal failure that had been diagnosed in the first month of life.

For the first time in the world, the Madrid public hospital in La Paz has successfully performed a multivisceral intestinal transplant from a controlled pediatric asystole donation in a 13 month old girl who has already been discharged and is in perfect health at home.

This has been reported by the Madrid regional government in an act in which the Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, has presented this medical breakthrough along with the director of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), hospital medical staff and the patient’s parents.

Asystolic donation is the donation of organs and tissues that come from a person diagnosed with death after confirmation of the irreversible cessation of cardiorespiratory functions (absence of heartbeat and spontaneous breathing), organs that are preserved with an extracorporeal oxygenation system.

The Madrid health authorities emphasize that this technique “makes possible the use of solid organs that would otherwise be lost.” The recipient of the organs donated in this way was a 13-month-old girl with diagnosed bowel failure since his first month of life and that he was in a very deteriorated state of health, explains the Madrid Health Department in a press release.

Even though a 30% of candidates die on the waiting list, the intestine from an asystolic donation had never been used as it was considered that it would not be valid given the special characteristics of this organ, although, “as the scientific evidence did not show that it could not be done either”, the Congenital Malformations Group and Transplantation of the Health Research Institute (IdiPAZ) launched a three-year research project, with institutional support and funding from the Fundación Mutua Madrileña.

According to the Community, after experimenting and demonstrating that the intestine was valid, “it could be transferred to the clinic, being a success” obtained, they have indicated.