Ground-Breaking Stem Cell Surgery Almost Sidelined by Airline, Scientist Infuriated

It took five months for researchers at England’s Bristol University to grow the 60 million stem cells needed for the breakthrough windpipe transplant recently performed on a Colombian woman in Barcelona, Spain, in order to replace her tuberculosis-ravaged trachea with a transplanted one.  Once the stem cells left the British laboratory, they had to be used within 16 hours or they’d become unusable. Read more

Matched Genders Improve Heart Transplant Survival Rate

Surviving a heart transplant seems to be easier when the new heart comes from a donor the same gender as the patient. Men getting male hearts fare the very best of all, according to a new study unveiled at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, in progress in New Orleans. Read more

Did Marrow Transplant Cure AIDS?

That’s the question abuzz in the medical community as doctors around the globe discuss a bone marrow transplant, performed in Berlin, that is said to have cured the patient of AIDS. Twenty months after the transplant, some critics suggest the outcome is merely a fluke but even they do not deny the possibilities suggested by the case. Read more

Smiling a Joy for Face Transplant Patients

Isabelle Dinoire, Li Guoxing, and an unnamed Frenchman all share the miracle of a smile after their faces were severely damaged by trauma and disease.  Their new smiles are the result of ground-breaking face transplants and, a couple of years after surgery for each of them, the results of their surgeries are said to be highly successful from both physical and psychological perspectives. Read more

Denver Doctor Under Fire Over Infant Organ Transplants

Between 2004 and 2007, Dr. Mark M. Bouchet and his surgical transplant team removed the hearts from three tiny patients at Denver Children’s Hospital and transplanted them into three tiny patients dying of heart disease. All three of those tiny transplant recipients are alive today. Read more

Transplanted Cells No Cure Yet for Parkinson’s Disease

Nature Medicine has just published the groundbreaking results of a study involving the use of dopamine cell transplants into the brain of a Parkinson’s disease patient. The findings of the study indicate Parkinson’s is caused by a cluster of factors instead of just one, as had been previously speculated. Read more

Faulty Diagnosis Puts Organ Donation In The Spotlight

Every year organ donation gives thousands of Americans a second chance at life. On any given day, 100,000 men, women and children are waiting for life-saving organs. Six thousand people die every year because no organs could be found for them. Read more

Groundbreaking Surgery Saves Cancer Patient’s Life

“I’m glad I had a good anesthesiologist.” Brooke Zepp, a 63-year-old cancer patient from Pompano Beach, Florida, is also glad to have had such an outstanding team of transplant surgeons, too. Read more

Face Transplants in US Now Possible

Transplanting the face of a deceased person onto that of a living person might seem like something out of a science-fiction movie, but it’s not. The procedure, which actually does not include the entire face but mainly the nose, lips, and a portion of surrounding cheek tissue, has already been successfully performed on three patients outside the United States. Read more

Court Case Revives Organ Donor Debate

A California doctor is in court fighting for his freedom in a case that involves the life and death of a disabled young man whose organs were to be harvested for transplanting.
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