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Transplanted heart does double duty
Doctors give organ to new patient after original recipient dies
NEW YORK - Two months ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, surgeons removed a transplanted heart from a patient who had died and retransplanted it in another recipient.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done with a transplanted heart,†Dr. Lawrence S. C. Czer, medical director of the center’s heart transplant program, told Reuters Health. “Even with other organs, repeat transplantation is very rare.â€
The second patient was a 45-year-old man with noncompaction syndrome, a rare cardiac condition in which the heart assumes a spongelike appearance. The disease is progressive, and the man’s heart became more and more disabled despite the best medical therapy.
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According to Czer, the patient first went on the waiting list for a heart transplant in 2002 but he improved and came off the list for several years. About a year ago, his condition worsened and again he was placed on the list.
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Doctors give organ to new patient after original recipient dies
NEW YORK - Two months ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, surgeons removed a transplanted heart from a patient who had died and retransplanted it in another recipient.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done with a transplanted heart,†Dr. Lawrence S. C. Czer, medical director of the center’s heart transplant program, told Reuters Health. “Even with other organs, repeat transplantation is very rare.â€
The second patient was a 45-year-old man with noncompaction syndrome, a rare cardiac condition in which the heart assumes a spongelike appearance. The disease is progressive, and the man’s heart became more and more disabled despite the best medical therapy.
Story continues below ↓advertisement
According to Czer, the patient first went on the waiting list for a heart transplant in 2002 but he improved and came off the list for several years. About a year ago, his condition worsened and again he was placed on the list.
>