Doctors have transplanted a pig kidney into a New Jersey woman who was near death, part of a dramatic pair of surgeries that also stabilized her failing heart.
Lisa Pisano’s combination of heart and kidney failure left her too sick to qualify for a traditional transplant, and out of options. Then doctors at NYU Langone Health medical center devised a novel one-two punch: Implant a mechanical pump to keep her heart beating and days later transplant a kidney from a genetically modified pig.
Pisano is recovering well, the NYU team announced on Wednesday.
Photo: NYU Langone Health handout via AFP
She is only the second patient ever to receive a pig kidney — following a landmark transplant last month at Massachusetts General Hospital — and the latest in a string of attempts to make animal-to-human transplantation a reality.
This week, the 54-year-old grasped a walker and took her first few steps.
“I was at the end of my rope,” Pisano said. “I just took a chance. And you know, worst case scenario, if it didn’t work for me, it might have worked for someone else and it could have helped the next person.”
NYU Langone Transplant Institute director Robert Montgomery recounted cheers in the operating room as the organ immediately started making urine.
“It’s been transformative,” Montgomery said of the experiment’s early results.
However, “we’re not off the hook yet,” said Nader Moazami, the NYU cardiac surgeon who implanted the heart pump.
“With this surgery I get to see my wife smile again,” Pisano’s husband, Todd, said on Wednesday.
Other transplant experts are closely watching how the patient fares.
“I have to congratulate them,” said Tatsuo Kawai of Massachusetts General, who said that his own pig kidney patient was healthier overall going into his operation than NYU’s patient.
“When the heart function is bad, it’s really difficult to do a kidney transplant,” Kawai said.
More than 100,000 people are on the US transplant waiting list, most who need a kidney, and thousands die waiting. In hopes of filling the shortage of donated organs, several biotech companies are genetically modifying pigs so their organs are more human-like, less likely to be destroyed by people’s immune system.
NYU and other research teams have temporarily transplanted pig kidneys and hearts into brain-dead bodies, with promising results. Then the University of Maryland transplanted pig hearts into two men who were out of other options, and both died within months.
Massachusetts General’s pig kidney transplant last month raised new hopes.
Richard “Rick” Slayman experienced an early rejection scare, but bounced back enough to go home earlier this month and still is faring well five weeks post-transplant, Kawai said.
Pisano is the first woman to receive a pig organ — and unlike with prior xenotransplant experiments, both her heart and kidneys had failed. She went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated before the experimental surgeries. She had gotten too weak to even play with her grandchildren.
A failed heart made her ineligible for a traditional kidney transplant.
However, while on dialysis, she did not qualify for a heart pump, called a left ventricular assist device or LVAD, either.
“It’s like being in a maze and you can’t find a way out,” Montgomery said.
Then the surgeons decided to pair a heart pump with a pig kidney.
With emergency permission from the US Food and Drug Administration, Montgomery chose an organ from a pig genetically engineered by United Therapeutics Corp so its cells do not produce a particular sugar that is foreign to the human body and triggers immediate organ rejection.
Surgeons implanted the LVAD to power Pisano’s heart on April 4, and transplanted the pig kidney on April 12.
There is no way to predict her long-term outcome, but she has shown no sign of organ rejection so far, Montgomery said.
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