Vancouver surgeons to herald new era in lung transplant

The kind of lungs that were considered unsuitable for transplant will now get a shot at saving lives as medical experts at Vancouver General Hospital introduce a new high tech process called ex vivo lung perfusion.

Canada Goose Online Health professionals at VGH have been practising for weeks on human, but unusable, lungs donated for research. On Friday, they will finish their training and certification on the new equipment. That means the first transplant utilizing the new high tech equipment could occur as early as this weekend. Canada Goose Online

The ex vivo lung perfusion process lets transplant experts treat lungs as they sit in a humidified, dome shaped chamber connected by tubes to machinery that pumps in nutrients like fluids, proteins and oxygen. It also allows health professionals to determine the quality of donor lungs through physical examination and imaging studies to rule out tumours, embolisms and lung diseases while sustaining the lungs in an environment that mimics the human body.

Canada Goose Parka Problems like infections, pneumonia, edema (excess fluid retention) and inflammation are some of the conditions that can be treated to improve the quality of the donor lungs. Canada Goose Parka

Those that can be fixed while hooked up to the machinery canada goose ebay uk won be used for transplant, sparing patients the potentially deadly consequences of implanting canada goose bird uk failing organs that won function properly, said Dr. Lung Transplant Program.

Dr. John Yee examines a donor lung in the dome of the new $325,000 Ex Vivo lung perfusion machine at VGH. Using this technology is going to help make transplantation safer, and to convert organs that are canada goose outlet marginally usable into organs that are definitely and reliably usable, Yee said.

canada goose coats on sale He said the new method for examining lungs is expected to increase the number of lungs available for transplant by about 20 per cent, while improving outcomes for recipients after transplantation. canada goose coats on sale

canada goose store Based on data from the past 28 years, about 70 per cent of patients who get a double lung transplant can expect to live at least another five to 10 years. Yee said patients are within a year or two of death by the time they get to the top of the transplant list, so the transplant buys many of them years of life. canada goose store

He hopes the new equipment https://www.doloresnet.com by allowing use of more donor lungs will mean an end to people dying while on the waiting list.

canada goose uk shop While single lung transplants were fairly standard several years ago, Yee said the transition to nearly all double lung transplants occurred canada goose outlet as more organs became available. canada goose uk shop

“Having a double lung is like having a car with two tanks of gas instead of one. It will go further,” he said, adding that starting off with two new lungs prolongs the time to infection or rejection.

Canada Goose Outlet Lung transplant teams at Vancouver General Hospital are wrapping up training on their new canada goose victoria parka uk $325,000 ex vivo lung perfusion equipment. By contrast, the rate of use for donor hearts is 30 per cent. But at any time, dozens of people are waiting. Canada Goose Outlet

Yee said typical donors are individuals who been in accidents, had a brain hemorrhage or had a drug overdose. Often, during the resuscitation process, their lungs filled with fluids and developed pneumonia while on mechanical ventilators, a hospital acquired injury. Until now, canada goose outlet uk review lungs from such patients may have been considered too risky to use. The new equipment, Yee said, canada goose clearance gives transplant team experts a four to six hour window to examine and recondition the lungs.

He expects the equipment will be used six to 10 times a year on lungs that are initially considered usable. is one of only four provinces offering a lung transplant program; the others are Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.

Yee said implanting lungs is serious business and something that we canada goose jacket outlet uk would promote or take lightly. There are a lot of consequences, like drugs that patients have to take for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection and susceptibility to infections. fibrosis is a common disease that can lead to a lung transplant and, in the past few years, VGH has disclosed some spectacular success stories in patients with that disease and other potentially fatal lung conditions.

canada goose uk black friday While deaths after fentanyl and other drug overdoses have meant a bigger supply of some organs for transplant, Yee said it hasn been as much of a factor in lung transplants. canada goose uk black friday

canada goose coats opioid epidemic has been a huge social tragedy. But it hasn really helped us for organ retrieval because many of these lungs are too damaged by the time these victims have been found dead. Their lungs are often not viable, they aren salvageable. It a different story for kidneys and livers. But the lungs are more finicky. They are the most difficult to accomplish transplants successfully. Transplant has been studying various ways to increase lung transplants through various previously unthinkable routes: allowing donations from euthanasia patients and from individuals infected with hepatitis C. In Toronto, where doctors pioneered the ex vivo system, research has shown that it is safe to use lungs from hep C donors. After their lungs are removed, the organs can be treated in the domed system to knock out the virus before being transplanted canada goose coats.