Will machine perfusion revolutionize organ transplant?

Across five decades of advances in transplant medicine, static cold storage (SCS) has remained a largely unchanged but vital link in the chain between donor and recipient. Yet static cold storage has well-recognized limitations. SCS slows, but doesn’t prevent, ischemic injury, which in turn increases the risk of graft non-function, ischemia reperfusion injury, primary graft dysfunction, and other post-transplant complications in the recipient. In addition, only a limited assessment of the organ is possible during SCS, making it difficult to accurately predict how well an organ may function following transplant.

Now, however, the rapidly advancing technology of ex vivo normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) holds promise for improved preservation, better assessment and even reconditioning of organs before transplant.  Read more.