|
Medical advances have made possible to
transplant many of our organs. The first human transplantation of human
heart was done by Dr. Christian Barnard in 1967. The patient survived
only 18 days due to some complications.
By 1983, with the development of anti
rejection drug cyclosporine, the success rate of heart transplant
surgery suddenly leaped by thousands of percent. The anti rejection
drug have done miracle to the recipient to accept the new found organ
in his or her body.
The process of heart transplant
involve 3 major operations:
-
the first involve harvesting the organ
from a brain dead donor who are usually pre donated the organ in the
event of an accident. The donor is usually certified as brain dead
before the medical team will harvest the heart organ out. The team need
to work fast because the lead time from the minute the the donor is
brain dead till the time the patient starts activating the organ is
about 6 hours.
The heart organ will have to be place in
ice environment to keep them alive before the next operation.
-
the second operation involve removing the
recipient's heart organ from the body. This is a tedious work if the
recipient has gone through previous heart related surgery.
-
the third operation involve anastomoses
or stitching back all the blood vessels entering and leaving the heart.
The criteria for a successful heart
transplant surgery:
-
must be a good match. The donor needs to have a healthy
body at the time the organ is being harvested, with documented written
permission to do so and not under any complication medications.
-
even with prior consent of the donor to donate the
organ, some of the family members are not willing to allow their loved
one's organ to be harvested.
-
cost of transplantation is huge which most insurers are
hesitant to pay for it.
-
human heart is not a gender specific. A
man can use a woman's heart and vice versa
-
the heart do not reflect any specific
previous emotions, hormone change or color preferences.
-
the most important criteria of a
successful heart transplant surgery is the blood group type. They must come
from the same blood group type.
-
the weight of the recipient must not be
more or less than 10% of the weight of the donor. This is important
factor because the new heart organ in the recipient must not be over
worked. The heart organ is neither too big for the recipient too
because it need space in the chest cavity.
-
the major challenges faced by the heart
transplant surgery process are the timing, distance, permission, cost,
availability, and red tape by certain hospitals.
-
after transplantation, the factor of
organ rejection needs to be addressed accordingly. Anti rejection
medication is a life long task for the recipient.
|