TAMPA, Fla. — Surgeons at Tampa General Hospital and USF Health successfully completed the world's first recorded bloodless heart-liver transplant.
TGH said the patient was diagnosed with both coronary artery disease and fatty liver disease, which are conditions associated with metabolic syndrome. The patient waited more than 18 months for a transplant procedure that needed to be performed without the use of blood products, requiring the team of surgeons to perform the dual-organ transplant as a bloodless surgery.
According to medical professionals, the surgery was a rare and highly complex procedure. The first bloodless single-organ transplant was performed in 1986, but the practice of bloodless transplant surgery is still not commonly available in most health systems.
“Our physicians have the expertise to provide complex care for patients who have no other options,” said Dr. Lockwood, executive vice president and chief academic officer at Tampa General. “This kind of innovative problem-solving and multidisciplinary care is why patients at academic medical centers have been shown to have better health outcomes. I’m tremendously proud of our physicians for their leadership in this arena.”
The team of doctors was led by Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, Vice President and Chief of the TGH Transplant Institute, as well as Associate Professor of Surgery at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and Dr. Gundars Katlaps, Surgical Director of the Lung Transplant Program and Associate Professor of Surgery in the Morsani College of Medicine.
TGH said bloodless transplants help expand care for patients who are unable to receive blood products due to medical contraindications or religious beliefs. Research has shown that reducing the use of blood products can be beneficial by reducing the risk of infection and improving recovery time.
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