A medical milestone in transplants was achieved in the US when surgeons transplanted a genetically modified pig kidney into a neuropathic patient.
On March 19, 2024, it was held at Massachusetts General Hospital, USA the first transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year-old neuropath. According to the treating doctors, the man continues to improve.
If the transplant is ultimately successful, it will offer hope to hundreds of thousands of neuropathy patients and make dialysis obsolete. So far, the signs are promising.
The kidneys remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood. The new kidney began producing urine shortly after the surgery last weekend, and the patient's condition continues to improve, according to doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital, known as Mass General. He is already walking the halls of the hospital and may be discharged soon.
The patient is black, and the procedure may be of particular importance to black patients, who have high rates of end-stage renal disease. End-stage kidney disease is three times more common in black Americans than in white Americans.
According to Dr. Winfred Williams, associate chief of nephrology at Mass General and the patient's primary nephrologist, "A new source of kidneys could solve an intractable problem of insufficient patient access to kidney transplants."
If kidneys from genetically modified animals can be transplanted on a large scale, dialysis "will become obsolete," said Dr. Leonardo V. Riella, medical director of kidney transplantation at Mass General.
